


Treelight City/Smallfoot AU

by Kelblue_Fire18



Category: Original Work, Smallfoot (2018)
Genre: Basically like the movie, But its worth it, F/F, F/M, Other, Smallfoot (2018) - Freeform, Smallfoot AU, Treelight City AU, except I made a few changes in it, took me weeks to finish this thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 19:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16919292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelblue_Fire18/pseuds/Kelblue_Fire18
Summary: Alli is a friendly Yeti whose world gets turned upside down when she discovers something that she didn't know existed -- a human. She soon faces banishment from her snowy home when the rest of the villagers refuse to believe her fantastic tale. Hoping to prove them wrong, Alli embarks on an epic journey to find the mysterious creature that can put her back in good graces with her simple community.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: some paragraphs are from the movie novelization. Lyrics are not mine. They belong to Smallfoot Soundtrack from genius. 
> 
> https://genius.com/albums/Various-artists/Smallfoot-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-deluxe-edition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the story, at the start of a new day.

High on the top of the Himalayas, covered in ice and snow, lived a village of Yetis, where they thrived in peace and uninterrupted happiness. 

In the beginning, the first Yetis were born as they had fallen out of the butt of the Great Sky Yak. They then had landed on an island surrounded by floatings clouds; below those clouds is the Great Nothing, filled with darkness and nothing else. Holding the island are the Sky Mammoths, which need to be fed to keep the land floating. 

And every morning, the Golden Gong needs to be rung, to awaken the Great Glowing Sky Snail, circling the village every day as it passes by in the colorful sky, bringing light to the village. 

Those rules for the lives of the Yetis were written on the stones, trapped in a robe worn by the village leader, the Stonekeeper. 

“The stones are here to protect us and keep us safe,” he’d said to a group of toddlers as they sat around the fire, knowing about the history of their world. 

As years passed, the Yetis did as the rules had told them, but a few of them had a lot of questions to wonder and wanted to answer, while others ignored them and continued on with their lives and jobs. 

But then, later on, they didn’t know that an extraordinary change would come upon them. 

*****

The last grains of sand fell from a bottle and landed on a wooden slat; it dropped on one end and raised a feather that lightly touched a foot. 

Nabel laughed, waking up from the small touch of the feather and clapped two times, letting yellow snails on the wall above her to puff up and glow, lighting up the room. She got up and stretched, walking past her sister’s room. 

“Up and at ‘em, Alli!” She called as she pulled back her brown hair into a ponytail. “Time to ring the Gong!” 

Her older sister’s voice startled the young Yeti awake, and she got up quickly from her bed, her blue eyes wide open with excitement. 

“Oh, yeah!” She cried. She bounced off her bed, her curly, auburn hair flowing behind her as she followed Nabel. More snails lit up the path while they walked outside to where the platform that looked over the village is. But Alli knew it’s not going to be dark for long. 

Nabel placed on a helmet on her head, strapped the harness to her chest, and sat on the seat that is stuck on a catapult-like contraption on the platform. Alli turned the wheel that controlled the direction of the seat by a rope; as she cranked, Nabel’s seat was pulled backward, as far as possible to reach the Gong ahead. 

Alli then released the lever, and the seat lurched forward, sending Nabel flying through the hoop at the end of the platform, and soaring through the village until her head hit the gong. 

The loud sound of the gong rang through the village and the high snowy peaks of the mountains. Nabel landed on the floor below the gong and looked at the horizon with her eyes full of hope. Alli did the same from the platform. The rays from the sun shone slowly rose and began to shine in the sky. 

“Woo-hoo! Good one, Annie!” Alli cheered and jumped, raising her arms. Nabel gave a thumbs-up to her younger sister as thanks. 

Alli looked over the village of the Yetis, who are now waking up from the sounds of the gong. She had been helping her sister wake the village for as long as she could remember. Now she couldn’t wait for this job to be hers one day. 

“Look at everyone there below, all the Yetis I love and know,” she sung, gazing over the village. “And they’re waking up to see this awesome morning.” 

She hopped off the platform and slid down the snowy hill with her Yeti feet like she is wearing a pair of ski shoes. Snails were starting to light up in every cave as the villagers are waking up. They popped their heads out the doors and window to greet the morning light and Alli, as she slid past them. 

“They’ve all got a smile on their face, another reason I love this place.” She stopped in front of a stand and propped up the pole properly, the vendor thanking her. “’Cause it’s full of life and never boring.” Alli saw that Lily, one of the toddlers, was having trouble with a rock fruit, and she picked it up, smashing it open with her head, before giving the two pieces to Lily. A young Yeti attempted to do the same, but his head wasn’t strong enough to crack his own open. 

“Look all around us, it’s all rock and ice and snow.” Alli accidentally stepped on a frozen puddle from a bucket, but got back up easily and smiled at the Yeti with the bucket. “Frigid and freezing, yeah, it’s pretty great, I know.”

At the very top on a tall tower, Yetis rode in a circle on unicycles, turning a wheel that made the tower spin. Alli had her hand licked and placed it on a chunk of ice being carried by a pulley. “And hey, hey, it’s another day, like every other. And I don’t wanna change a thing. Not one little thing, I mean, because I do what the stones say. And I’m doin’ okay. What could be better than this? It is what it it is, it is perfection.” 

Alli dropped from the pulley when a Yeti splashed hot water on her hand, free from the chunk of ice, which fell from the pulley as well onto the top of the platform. She watched a group of Yetis striking on an ice cliff with pickaxes. A different Yeti jumped onto a chunk of ice and slid down the hill, zooming past the Yetis doing the same. 

“Look at everybody do their part, and they do it with a happy heart. And it gives them all a sense of greater purpose.”

When they reached the bottom of the cliff, the ice chunks were turned to smooth, round balls. The Yetis who had slid down the hill took the balls and placed them in a pile, where others polished them until they shone. 

“Well, that’s the way that I wanna be, I wanna make them all proud of me. Just be a steady Yeti and deserve this.” One was thrown at Alli, and she placed inside the mouth of a large statue after everyone in front of her did the same. 

“Do you seriously believe mammoths are holding us up?” Josh, a Yeti with light brown hair on his body and bangs in his eyes, asked the toddlers and Lily. They nodded in response. 

“What’s holding up the mammoths?” Sam, a female Yeti with blonde, wavy hair, asked them. Alli saw them with the kids and approached the trio. 

“Uh, hello? It’s just mammoths, all the way down,” she chuckled and knelt in front of Lily and the toddlers. “Don’t listen to them. They’re questioning the stones, and we don’t do that, okay?” 

Josh, Matt, and Sam rolled their eyes at Alli. 

“If there’s a question, causing you to go astray,” Lily and the toddlers nodded their heads rhythmically as Alli guided them. “Just stuff it down inside until it goes away.” She made a push-down motion with her hands, and the toddlers followed her movements. “Got it?”

“Where’s Alli?” The Stonekeeper’s voice called for her, and Alli slid right in front of the steps of the palace, where the Stonekeeper and his two sons stood. The villagers, including Lily and the youngsters, gathered around for what he was about to say. 

“Alli, you will never be the Gong Ringer of the village,” he said. 

“Wait, what?” Alli asked in disbelief. 

“Without practice.”

“He’s giving you your own helmet!” Nate, the oldest son, blurted out excitedly. His father and little brother glanced at him deadpanned. “Oh, I spoiled the surprise. Sorry, Dad!” 

The Stonekeeper handed a helmet to Alli, whose eyes lit up suddenly. 

“My own helmet? You mean…today’s the day?” She gasped and looked at Nabel, who nodded in joy. 

“Congratulations, Alli,” Cody said to her. She felt her cheek turn red under the fur. 

“Today’s the big day, Alli!” Nabel replied. 

“Hey, everyone!” Alli turned to face the Yetis in the village. “I’m gonna practice ringing the Gong!” They all cheered as she jumped off the steps and landed on her feet, her helmet on her head. 

“Now we all said hey, hey, it’s another day, like every other,” the villagers sung along with Alli as they followed her. “And I don’t wanna change a thing. Not one little thing, I mean, because we like livin’ this way. And we’re doin’ okay. What could be better than this? It is what it it is, it is perfection. Woah, woah. I said, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, it is perfection. Woah, Woah. I said, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, it is perfection.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The discovery outside the village and banishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: some paragraphs are from the movie novelization.

“Practice Gong!” Nabel called the warning from the platform. She only called it out for them to hear so they would know that the morning hasn’t started all over again; she also didn’t want anyone to get landed on if Alli missed the Gong. 

“Practice Gong!” The words were repeated around the village, and Nabel walked over to the wheel, while Alli prepared her helmet. 

“Are you ready for this?” She asked her younger sister. 

“Beyond ready!” Alli replied, bouncing on her seat ecstatically. “I can’t wait until this is my actual job.”

“You’re about to join a long line of family greats,” Nabel named every family member that had rung the Gong to wake the village before them. And she had dreamy at the thought of their parents. “And Mum and Dad. Wish they were here to teach you.”

Alli remembered how she used to watch her father hit the Gong like there is no tomorrow, how he would fly through the hoop in the early morning. Even after they had passed, Nabel did her best to raise Alli, along with the help from the villagers. 

“You’re doing great, Bel,” Alli spoke to her. 

“Thanks, sis,” Nabel smiled at her. “Now first, check your wind. It doesn’t take much to blow you off course.”

Alli licked her finger and held it up. “Wind, check.” She reported after feeling no gusts. 

“Perfect. Now true your aim,” Nabel said, turning the wheel that controlled the direction of the catapult. “You’ll mess up if your aim isn’t true.”

Her seat was turned towards the Gong ahead of her. “Aim, check!”

“Great. Now, this is very important. Even though you know it’s going to hurt, you have to hit it head-on.”

“Does it really hurt?”

“Only in the first or two years,” Nabel replied. 

“Did Mom and Dad used to be our height?”

“Well, Dad used to be taller. Took him years to achieve the height every time he hit the target. He never missed a day.”

“Huh.”

“Are you ready?” Nabel had her hands on the lever, waiting for Alli’s signal.

“Ready!” She replied. 

“Just say the word, sis.”

Her heart pounding, the Gong ahead in her sight. Alli was about to make her first practice hit. 

“Launch!” She yelled. Nabel pulled the lever, and Alli sprung forward-and fell flat on her face. 

Nabel ran to where she laid. “Uh, did I mention you gotta keep your feet up?”

“Nope,” Alli groaned, her voice muffled since her face was on the ground. 

“You have to keep your feet up.”

“Sure.” 

Alli got back up on her feet and sat back in the seat; this time, she held her feet off the ground, while Nabel cranked the wheel again. 

“Okay. Launch!” 

She flew forward, but her aim was off. She hit the edge of the hoop and fell back onto the platform. 

“Launch!” 

The seat had flipped backward, and it sent Alli tumbling. 

“Launch!” 

Alli was shot straight up into the air like a rocket, Nabel gazing up after her. 

“Never seen that happen,” she remarked. 

Even though she was sore and beaten up from the attempts, Alli’s spirit was not broken. She got back on her seat, her feet off the ground. 

“Launch.”

Nabel pulled the lever, and she sprung forward, flying right through the hoop and towards the gong. She whooped in victory as she soared in the air, the wind flowing through her auburn fur and hair. 

“Way to go, Alli!” Nabel cheered on for her. 

What an amazing feeling! And what an amazing view! Alli thought to herself.

The entire village was spread out in her view before her. She could see the stands, the giant statue, the ice pile, the palace, Cody…

Cody was standing in the palace steps, talking to his father, seated on his pet mammoth, Blaze. But then Cody looked up, directly at Alli, who stared undeviatingly back at him…and he smiled, right at her. 

She’d had a crush on the Stonekeeper’s youngest son ever since they were kids. He was so smart that he recited the rules on the stones before anyone else could back in school. And whenever he smiled, that grin could melt the biggest chunk of ice of a heart, Alli thought. And his hair, his hair was the nicest shade of blonde, curly, his bangs on one side of his face. 

“Cody.” Alli happily sighed, her furry cheeks reddening. 

“Alli, true your aim! True your aim!” The panicked tone of Nabel’s voice from the platform rung into her mind. As Alli looked back from Cody, she instantly realized that her aim was off course. But it was too late to fix it. She sailed over the gong and over the mountain wall that bordered the village as everyone gasped. 

Alli finally crashed into the snow below, and stood up, rubbing her head. She had landed in the ice cliffs, the cliffs that led to the Great Nothing. Then she felt a cold breeze on her head and realized that her helmet had fallen off when she landed. 

“My helmet! Where’s-where-”

Then a buzzing noise came from the distance. Alli got up from the snowy ground, and walked, searching for the source until she reached the edge of the world. Clouds floated up in the air as far as the eye can see. 

The buzzing noise got louder, and she turned to find a light, shining in the distance, which broke through the clouds ahead. 

“Wow. What is that?”

The object looked like a bird with wings, but no feathers. Alli didn’t know it, but she was looking at an airplane, with a trail of smoke pouring from the propellers. Whatever it was, it was heading straight towards her, about to crash into her. 

“Uh, uh. Hey, hey. What?” Alli’s eyes widened, and she turned and ran, her legs carrying her as fast as they could. The plane zoomed towards her, losing a wheel to a rock in the process. 

“Aaah! No! Get away!” Alli screamed, glancing over her shoulder as the plane chased after her, hitting the ground and sending a wave of snow in its wake. “Stop it! Aahh! Not funny!” 

Her feet accidentally stepped on a sheet of ice, causing her to slid up and fly into the air, screaming until she landed on the plane. 

“Huh?”

The plane hit a rock, causing her to fly off and land on it. Then it hit another boulder, and she held on to it before it hit another rock one last time. She nearly scratched the aircraft as she slid backward, clinging onto it. As the plane bounced every time it hit the ground, Alli rode it like she was a cowboy on a bronco, until it hit a bump and flung Alli forward, headfirst into the snow. 

She popped out of the snow and shook some bits off of her fur. She turned to find the nose of the plane skidding towards her and screamed. She backed away from it as it got closer, and it stopped only inches away from her. 

Alli sighed with relief. Suddenly, the cockpit burst open and a pilot shot out of the plane. His parachute opened up, and Alli watched wide-eyed, as the pilot slowly fell down into the snow, the parachute covering him. 

“Whoa.”

Curious, she got out of the snow and hid behind a boulder. She hesitated but tip-toed towards the pilot, who crawled out from under the parachute. She had never seen anything, let alone a creature, like the pilot before. He is so small. And where are his fur?

The pilot saw Alli standing in front of him, and a high-pitched scream came out from him. She screamed as well, but to him, she was roaring. He stumbled back startled, slipped and fell backward with his feet facing Alli. She crouched down in the snow, gaping at his feet in amazement. 

“Look at your small foot.” She picked up his boot and laughed, which to the pilot, sounded like growls and snarls. Then it hit her. “Small foot.” She repeated the words again and studied it closer. “Smallfoot” was a word she knew-a word from the stones. “It’s a Smallfoot. Smallfoot! Oh, my gosh, it’s a Smallfoot!” 

She was about to get a closer look, but the parachute was suddenly pulled by a blast of wind, pulling the pilot away from Alli and into the clouds. 

“No! No! Come back!” She cried as he disappeared into the clouds. She suddenly turned to find the airplane in the snow. The pilot is gone-but the Smallfoot’s craft, the airplane, is still there.

“Oh, holy wowness!” She exclaimed. “Hey, everyone! You gotta come to see this! Quick!” 

Alli made her way back to the village as fast as she could, heading to Main Street, yelling, “Hey! Everyone! You gotta come to see this!” 

She bumped into a Yeti with a basket and yelped. 

“Alli, you missed it. You missed the gong,” one Yeti said to her. 

“I know, I know.” Alli stopped in the middle of the market stalls to catch her breath. Some of the Yetis noticed her, and a group of kids ran up to her. “Okay. I…SAW…A Smallfoot!” She announced. 

“What?” They, including Josh, Sam, and Matt, all said. Lily made an explosion motion with her hands. 

“Just come and see for yourself!” Alli said. “Come on, everybody!” 

Lily lit up and made hand gestures to her friends to watch Alli. They obliged and followed behind, laughing. Sam motioned for Josh and Matt to come with Alli, and they pulled Matt with them. Nate, who is patrolling on his mammoth, saw the group leaving with Alli, and turned towards the palace. 

“Dad!” He called. 

Meanwhile, a hungry yak tugged on a piece of greenery, which was near the plane. When it was pulled from the ground, a crack of ice appeared underneath the snow, leading all the way to the plane. The snow underneath it loosened, causing to tumble towards the yak, but it fell between the large crack. The plane stopped at the edge of the cliff, teetering. 

“It came at me from the sky in some sort of hard, shiny, flying thing!” Alli was saying as she led the villagers to the crash site. “And it made a sound like-eeeoooowwwww! And that’s when it scooped me up! Come on, it’s right this way!” She crested a hill just in time to see the plane fall over the cliff and disappear into the clouds below. 

“Aaahhh!” She screamed. She watched helplessly as a wind blew away the tracks that the craft had made in the snow. “No!” 

The other Yetis followed Alli over the hill, and she wailed as she tried to find a way to explain to them about the craft she had seen with her own eyes. 

“It was right here! Look, I swear! The shiny, flying thing, that’s what the Smallfoot shot out of! It was like, poof!” She made a parachute shape with her arms. The crowd gasped. 

“And then a big fabric thing landed on top of it, and it was like, whaaaa!” A toddler hid behind his father’s legs as she said this. 

“And when it saw me, it sang the most strange, beautiful song, like, aaaaaaah!” 

“Ahh!” The villagers repeated. 

“Almost,” Alli replied. “It was more like, aaaaaaaaah!” 

“Ahh!” The Yetis and Matt repeated again. 

“It’s probably still around here somewhere,” Alli said as she looked around. “Let’s look for it, right now! C’mon!” 

One of the Yetis had a look of panic in his face. “Still around here?”

“It could be in the village!” someone else cried. 

“It could be at my house!” someone yelled. 

“Get the children!” another Yeti shrieked in terror. 

The Yetis started running back to the village and freaking out, all at once. Lily was amongst the crowd, trying to find her mother, but her parent picked her up and held her close, screaming. 

“Wait, everyone, hold on,” Alli said. “The Smallfoot didn’t seem all that scary. It was kind of cute.” 

At that moment, Nate entered the scene, riding his mammoth, and blew on a large horn. “Everyone! Make way for my dad! I mean-the Stonekeeper!” He announced. “Sorry, Stonekeeper. I blew it.”

The murmuring of the crowd calmed down, and the Yetis fanned out as the Stonekeeper arrived, followed by Cody, who is riding on Blaze. 

“Good morning, everyone. Isn’t this a perfect day?” The leader asked. 

“Uh-oh,” Alli muttered. 

The nervous Yetis fired frantic worries at their leader: 

“Stonekeeper! She saw a Smallfoot!” 

“She said it might still be out there!” 

“She said it fell from the sky!” One Yeti was freaking out more than the other villagers. 

“Gary, calm down,” the Stonekeeper said to him. “You know how you get.”

“Okay, I’ll try, but I’m just so scared.”

Nabel came running through the crowd and saw Alli at the center of attention. Her heart dropped at the sight of her sister about to be confronted by the Stonekeeper himself. 

“Now, I know that Alli has gotten you all very anxious with her little ‘story’,” the Stonekeeper began, smiling calmly. “But there is nothing to fear because it isn’t true.”

“But I saw one,” Alli insisted. 

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“You couldn’t have seen it, because it doesn’t exist.”

“I know, I know,” Alli replied and sighed. “Because a stone says ‘There’s no such thing as a Smallfoot’.”

The Stonekeeper pulled out a stone from his robe and held it up at her. “Yep. Right here. Clear as day.”

“I know, but it was right here in front of me!” Alli pressed. 

Nate climbed down from his mammoth and walked towards the auburn Yeti. “Hey, Alli. How did you know it was a Smallfoot?”

“Because…it had a small foot,” Alli sassed. 

Nate looked at his father, unknowing how to answer. “Dad?”

The Yetis began to murmur upon themselves. Alli was very sure of herself. 

“Dad, clearly she saw something,” Cody said, as he climbed off Blaze. 

“Oh, I’m not denying she saw something,” the Stonekeeper said. 

Alli lit up, hoping that he would support her finally. 

“Most likely, she slipped, fell on her head, got confused, and saw a yak.”

The villagers nodded in agreement. Alli held up her finger to protest, but the Stonekeeper continued. “Because if Alli is saying she saw a Smallfoot, then she’s saying that a stone is wrong.”

Alli gasped in horror, as well as the Yetis. No one was allowed to say the stones were wrong. 

“Is that what you are saying, Alli? That a stone is wrong?” The leader pressed. 

Before she could respond, her sister did it for her. 

“No!” Nabel exclaimed, pushing her way through the crowd, and to her sister. “She’s not saying that!” 

She turned to the Stonekeeper. “Just let me talk to her for a bit.”

He nodded, and Nabel pulled Alli aside. 

“Alli, what are you doing? Challenging the Stonekeeper? In front of the whole village?” She asked in an urgent whisper. 

“Nabel, what piece of advice has Mom and Dad always given us?” Alli questioned. 

“Don’t eat yellow snow?”

“No, the other one.”

“Never pee in the wind?”

“No, the other one.”

“Do what you’re told? Do your part? Never disagree with the Stonekeeper!”

“Bel, they raised to always be true!” 

“That was about hitting the Gong, not challenging a stone. Because if it goes against the stones, then it can’t be true!” Nabel pointed out. 

“But if I’m saying I didn’t see a Smallfoot, then I’m lying,” Alli protested. Nabel looked at her sister; she knew that she believed what she was saying. She had no idea what to say. 

“Alli?” Alli turned to glance at the Stonekeeper as he walked towards the two sisters. “I thought you wanted to be the next Gong Ringer.”

“I do!” Alli agreed. 

“Then are you still saying that the stone is wrong?” He asked. 

The villagers all focused on Alli, waiting for her answer. Nabel held her breath, her eyes silently begging for Alli to reconsider what she is about to say. 

“If saying I saw a Smallfoot means that a stone is wrong….then, yeah. I guess I am,” Alli bravely responded. 

The villagers gasped, and Cody watched on and Josh and Matt winced, while Sam covered her mouth in horror. Nabel sighed, unable to convince her sister to change her decision. 

The Stonekeeper shook his head and circled around Alli. “Oh, Alli. It pains me to say this. It truly does.” He took Nabel by the shoulders and led her away from Alli. “But you leave me no choice. Disobeying the stones is a grave offense. From this day forward, you will be banished from the village.” 

The Yetis gasped in shock. 

“What?” Alli asked in disbelief. 

“Until you are ready to stand before us all and tell us the truth.”

“I am telling the truth!” Alli begged. 

The Stonekeeper turned to the crowd. “That’s all, everyone! Back to work. Let’s make another perfect day.”

Nabel stepped in front of the village leader. “Stonekeeper! Please! That’s my little sister!” She pleaded with him. 

“Just give her a little time out there to think,” he replied. “She’ll come to her senses.” He took Nabel by the shoulder again and led her away from Alli. She glanced over before gazing away, her eyes filled with sorrow. Cody also strolled away in the crowd, along with Josh, Sam, and Matt. 

Alli saw little Lily looking at her with tears in her eyes. She didn’t know what to say to her. She’d been teaching the kids the stones were always right. What would the Yetis think of her now? Lily’s mother took her by the hand and walked away with her. 

“Lily-” She walked towards her, but Nate rode on his mammoth and got in front of her. 

“Hey! You’re banished!” he barked at her. “You know what that means.”

“Yes, Nate.”

“You do? What does that mean?”

“Nate!” His father called. 

“Coming!” Nate called back. “We’ll circle back.”

He still pointed at her as he rode away, and the other Yetis made their way back in the village, leaving Alli alone at the gates. 

The sky had turned grey, and the wind blew as snow fell. Alli turned around to look at the village one last time, her face filled with a heartbroken expression before she continued on over the hills.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth underneath the clouds and the first appearance of the S.E.S.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: some paragraphs are from the movie novelization. Lyrics do not belong to me. They belong to Smallfoot Soundtrack from genius. 
> 
> https://genius.com/Zendaya-wonderful-life-lyrics

“Few can survive the cold, brutal environment of the Himalayas…but this ingenious creature defies the odds.” 

A spider slowly crawled its way on an arm, which belonged to Brittany Ambers, who is smiling at a camera pointed at her. On the same day that Alli was banished from the village, Brittany was recording a segment for her television show deep with Ginger, her assistant. 

“The rare Himalayan jumping spider! This week on Brittany Ambers Wildlife.” She dramatically continued. Ginger stood nearby and watched, nodding her head in approval as Brittany kept speaking. “This agile arachnid can lay one thousand eggs at a time, and they can jump fifty feet into the air!” 

Brittany glanced at her arm, still pointing up at the sky, but the spider didn’t move. 

“There’s an element of mental preparation, I’m sure,” she said. 

The cameraman yawned but quickly kept the camera focused on her. Ginger gave her an encouraging thumbs-up and nodded, smiling. In desperation, Brittany moved her arm up and made it land on her nose. 

“Aaah! It’s attacking!” She shouted. “Oh no! The venom! It’s going into my brain! I can’t feel my face!” 

She made her tongue sticking out like she is mumbling. She whispered softly to Ginger and the cameraman, “Keep rolling, keep rolling!” She clutched her throat as if she’d been poisoned. 

“Cut,” Ginger said.

Brittany continued to ham it up for the camera and covered one eye with her hand. “I’m melting before your eyes!” 

“Brittany.”

“We’ll add melting effects,” Brittany mumbled the last part. “Melting, melting, melting.” She continued to act as if she is melting. 

“Brittany!” 

“Cut this part out. I’m gonna shut one of my eyes,” Brittany continued and she clutched her eye. “Oh, my eye! My eye!” 

“CUT!” Ginger placed her hand over the camera lens and walked to where Brittany is, shaking her head. “Brit, what are you doing?” 

“Saving our show,” the platinum-blonde replied, as she placed the spider back on her arm. “Me getting attacked by a spider would get fantastic ratings!” 

Ginger sighed. “Brittany, our show is educational and enlightening, a show that promotes respect of our fellow creatures of this planet.”

“I know. That’s why no one is watching it.”

“That’s why I don’t watch it,” the cameraman agreed. 

“Look, Ginger, unless our spider jumps, it’s boring.” As if on cue, the arachnid jumped off Brittany’s arm. 

“Hey, it jumped!” She shouted happily. 

It landed on the cameraman, who screamed and ran straight into a wall, shattering his camera. 

“Now that was exciting!” Brittany exclaimed. “Did we get that on film?”

“No,” the cameraman muttered. Ginger ran to check up on him. 

“Of course not,” Brittany replied, deadpanned. “All right. I'll just have to go over there and interview a piece of bark, shall I?” 

She turned to leave when she suddenly slammed right into the pilot, who grabbed her by her shoulder and stared at her with wild eyes. 

“YETI!” He screeched. 

“What?”

“My plane…crashed! In the snow. Teeth, claws, huge! I SAW A YETI!” The pilot shook Brittany by the shoulders as he yelled the last four words. Her face suddenly lit up when she had an idea, and she smiled at the pilot. 

“A Yeti, huh?” She gently wrapped her arm around the pilot and led him inside. “Let me buy you a cup and you can tell a lot you know.”

“You believe me, don’t you?” The pilot looked at her anxiously. 

“Of course I believe you,” Brittany grinned and patted his arm reassuringly. 

“You do?” The pilot continued. “You can trust me. I fly planes!”

*****

Alli didn’t know what to do. Lost in thought, she walked around in the foggy atmosphere, through the ice and snow, watching the snow whirl around her. A gust of wind swirled past her ear and sounded like Aaallii. She gasped and looked to her left, then to her right. 

“Who’s there?” 

She heard it again. Aaallii. 

“Smallfoot? Is that you?” Alli twirled around, finding nothing but the fog that surrounded her. “Ugh, maybe you are going crazy. No wonder no one believes you.” 

“We believe you.” 

Alli jumped and yelped, whipping around to see Josh behind her, and Sam popped up behind her, causing her to yelp again. 

“Aaalli,” Matt whispered. 

“Matt!” Josh and Sam scolded him. 

“What?”

“You guys,” Alli sighed in relief.

“Is it just me or does she look disappointed that’s it’s us?” Matt asked them. 

“You want proof that you saw what you saw?” Sam asked her. 

“Yeah.” Alli nodded. 

“We have proof for you,” Josh confirmed. 

“So you guys actually believe that I saw a Small-” Alli began, but she was interrupted by Josh, Sam and Matt all yelling “Ssshhhh!” and Sam covering her mouth with her hand to prevent her from talking any more. 

“They’re listening,” Josh whispered. 

“Who?” Alli’s voice was muffled under Sam’s hand. 

“The ears of oppression.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. 

“This way,” Josh instructed. “Stealth mode.” 

Then he hummed a tune and moved around like a spy on a secret mission, with Sam checking around to see if anyone is following them. 

Alli sighed. “Can this day get any more bizarre?” 

She gasped when she felt something odd and looked down. Matt has his arms wrapped around her waist and smiled at her. 

“Is this too close?” He asked her. 

“Uhhh, what?” She said, confused. 

“You know what you are now? One of us.” Matt chanted all the way as he walked alongside Alli. “One of us! One of us!”

Alli sighed. She couldn’t go back to the village unless she would tell the truth. And Josh, Sam, and Matt might be a little strange, but they acted like they have answers for her. And right now, all she had were questions. 

“I’ve been told that I’m pesky, annoying and a real pain,” Matt was talking to Alli as they caught up with Josh and Sam. “But hey. Who listens to their mom, right?” 

The group and Alli eventually came across a narrow ravine. Matt stepped beside a lever of some sort on the wall. 

“Where are you taking me?” Alli inquired. 

“Our leader requests a meeting with you,” Sam responded mysteriously. 

“You have a leader? Who?”

“You’ll see,” Josh said, his eyes gleaming. 

Matt pulled the switch next to him, and a secret entrance opened up, which lead to a large cave. Josh, Sam, and Matt motioned for her to follow them.

“Oh, boy,” Alli muttered. 

Snails lit up the darkness revealing a stone stairway that curved downward, which they followed down. Sam and Matt parted, while Josh stood in front of Alli.

“She’s here,” he announced. 

She squinted her eyes in confusion, and they widened when the last Yeti she wanted to see spun around to reveal himself.

“Cody?”

“Welcome,” he said, his arms outstretched. “We’re really glad you’re here.”

Alli gazed around the cave that belonged to the group. Snails of different colors lit up the walls and ceiling with a table in the middle and a few seats.

“What is this place?” Alli asked. 

“The secret headquarters of the S.E.S.” He high-fived Sam beside him. 

“The Esias?” 

“No, it’s three letters. S.E.S.” Cody corrected her. 

“Stands for Smallfoot Exists, Suckas!” Matt exclaimed, sitting on a canopy. 

“Matt, it’s ‘Smallfoot Evidentiary Society,” Sam explained. 

He shrugged. “I mean, my name has more pizzazz.”

“Smallfoot?” Alli repeated. “Wait, you’re like a smallfoot club? And you’re the leader? But-but you’re the Stonekeeper’s youngest son!”

“Look, I love my father, but he isn’t exactly what you would call ‘open to new ideas’,” Cody said and made air quotes to the last four words. 

“Because questions lead to knowledge,” Sam added. 

“And knowledge is power,” Josh said, circling around Alli. 

Her mind was whirring as she processed, trying to take everything in. She knew she wasn’t supposed to ask questions, but she had so many of them, for as long as she could remember. And these guys were saying that asking them was okay!

“So, wait, you don’t just believe in the Smallfoot…you’ve been looking for one!” She realized. That idea felt strange to her. Cody pulled her with him by her hand and lead her to a map of the mountain on the wall, marked with red Xs all over it. 

“Yes. Do you see all the red Xs? We have been searching the entire mountain for years trying to find one.”

“Why are you looking for Xs?

“We’re not looking for Xs,” Cody rolled his eyes and grinned. “We’re looking for the Smallfoot. And you have seen one!”

“But I can’t prove it!”

“That is where we come in,” Cody smiled. “Josh? Show her the evidence.”

Josh went to a display case and whipped off the cover. He took the objects from the case and brought them to the table in the middle of the room, Sam, Cody, and Alli joining in. 

“Here’s your proof,” he proclaimed as he laid the objects on the table. Matt took a snail from the wall and placed it on his head to add more light. Sam picked up the first object-a white, puffy winter jacket. 

“First item: the Smallfoot pelt,” she said. “Evidence suggest it sheds its skin annually.”

Josh picked up the next item-a small, broken ski pole. “Second item: a single, magical horn,” He placed on his forehead so that it resembled a unicorn horn. “We believe it is only one.”

“And then there’s this,” Cody picked up a roll of toilet paper and held it up for Alli to see. “The scroll of invisible wisdom. Just imagine the amazing stuff they’d put on here.”

“Bunch of crap, if you’d asked me,” Matt mumbled. 

“This proves….nothing!” Alli exclaimed. None of the items she looked at didn’t look familiar to her. She didn’t remember the horn, and the Smallfoot she had seen didn’t have a pelt this color. 

“Show her the last one,” Cody said. “This is the first thing I have ever found, the thing that started all of this.”

The five looked through a magnifying glass and Josh unwrapped a bundle of fold cloth to reveal a very small boot, letting it fall to the side for the footprint to see. Alli gasped, her eyes widening. 

“That was a trigger! She’s triggered!” Sam blurted. 

Josh nodded and held the boot closer for Alli to see. Her eyes widened more. She had seen one just like it on the Smallfoot she had encountered. 

“So you did see one!” Cody smiled. Alli couldn’t deny it. 

“Where did it go?” Josh urged. 

“I don’t know!” She answered. 

“Think!” Josh pressed. 

“Reach into your memory!” Sam suggested. 

“Slap her!” Matt cried. 

“No!” Alli closed her eyes, remembering the first encounter she had with the small creature. She remembered seeing its’ tiny foot, and then… “It got whisked away on the wind over the clouds!” 

“Well, which way? Up? Sideways? Where?” Cody pressed. 

In Alli’s mind, she could see the Smallfoot falling into the clouds away from her on the cliffs. 

“Down!” She yelled out loud. The group stopped questioning and stared at her. 

“Did you say down?” Sam asked. 

“Slap her!” Matt shouted. 

“Matt!” Josh and Sam scolded him. 

“Down! Of course!” Excited, Cody took the lit snail off of Matt’s head and hurried over to the map on the wall, and started writing things down on the area below. “I always thought it was weird that a mountain floats when there is obviously some invisible force pulling us all downward and keeping everything around us from drifting out into the sky.” 

The others watched him as he drew two sides of the bottom of the mountain and tapped the map. 

“Of course it’s just a theory. But this explains why we haven’t found a Smallfoot up here. Because it’s down here below the clouds.” He walked to Alli and gestured at her. “And if you want proof, that’s where we need to go.”

Alli’s eyes widened in terror and confusion. “In…the Nothing?”

She turned to find Josh, Sam, and Matt nodding their heads at her. She laughed. “You’re crazy!” She got up and went to the map on the wall. 

“Don’t call me crazy,” Josh growled, his eyes narrowing. 

“Yeah, never call the crazy guy crazy,” Matt warned. Josh glared at him. 

“Do you know why it’s called ‘the Great Nothing’?” Alli argued as she pointed at the bottom of the map. “BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING DOWN THERE!” 

“And why do you believe that?” Josh challenged her. 

“Because it’s written on the stones!” 

“So is the one that says that there’s no Smallfoot. And yet you saw one,” Sam pointed out. 

“Exactly. Why is there a stone that says something doesn’t exist?” Cody asked. “Doesn’t that prove that it actually does? And if one stone is wrong, then others could be as well.”

Alli held up her hands and stammered. “What? Other stones? How many do you think are wrong?”

“The whole robe,” Josh replied. 

“Huh,” Alli said. “You know what? This whole thing’s insane. I’m out.”

Alli headed for the exit, but Cody stepped in front of her to prevent her from walking out of the cave. “Alli, wait.”

“Hey, I just want to prove I saw a Smallfoot so I can get unbanished,” she argued. “But you? You want to what? Tear down everything our world is ever built on?”

“It’s not just about tearing down old ideas. It’s about finding new ones.” 

Alli stopped. She couldn’t lie about it. She had always wondered what was out there beyond their world. 

“You know what? Come with me.”

A while later, he led her to a cave filled with small dragonflies trapped in icicles, motioning for her to follow him. 

“Take a look around and see the world we think we know,” he sung as he led her to one of the frozen dragonflies. “Then look closer.” 

Alli gasped on wonder when she saw the small creature. 

“There’s more to life than meets the eye, a beauty to behold.” She can see Cody through the clear frozen icicle. “It’s all much bigger than we know.”

Cody and Alli slid across the ice cliffs, her following behind him. “It’s only just beginning to unfold,” he continued to sing as they zoomed. “So let it all unfold.”

Up ahead, they can see the edge of a cliff, and they fell down to another hill, leading to a river. 

“Far beyond all reason in your mind,” Cody took Alli by the hand and they stepped onto a large broken piece of ice, moving to the other side of the land. “There’s a world mysterious there for you to find. All these questions that we always have. All we are is curious. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Cody and Alli jumped off the icy land and headed into another cave with a single tree growing, and an opening overhead. She blinked. How could a tree grow inside a cavern?

“So go ‘round every corner. Search every part of the sky, 'cause a life that’s full of wonder,” Cody approached the tree, with Alli following behind him. “is a wonderful life.” He touched one of the leaves, and it began to move. Alli realized that it was another dragonfly as its wings opened and fluttered around the cavern. The other “leaves” opened up and joined the other one, circling around Alli and Cody. She giggled as he let one fly around his hand. 

The dragonflies fluttered out of the cavern through the overhead opening, and a small snowflake landed on Alli’s finger, which is being held by Cody. 

“Dig beneath the surface, find the lessons there to learn.” He took a round icicle and held it over the little snowflake so Alli can see it better. “And then dig deeper.” 

On that small snowflake, Alli and Cody ran across it, and it turned to reveal a blue snail being drawn on the rock wall by Cody. 

“Feed your intuition, don’t leave any stone unturned. Be the seeker of the truth.” He drew a question mark next to the blue snail, and then turned to Alli who watched him draw on the wall. “Listen when you hear it calling you. You know it’s calling you.”

Alli and Cody found themselves on a white-blue flying ball, stars and small rocks surrounding them. 

“Far beyond all reason in your mind, there’s a world mysterious there for you to find,” Cody held her hands as he continued. “All these questions that we always have. All we are is curious. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

The two Yetis on the ball turned around the corner of a large rock and the Great Glowing Sky Snail came into their view. 

“So go 'round every corner. Search every part of the sky, 'cause a life that’s full of wonder,” Cody picked up a rock and showed to Alli, who smiled in amazement. “is a wonderful life.” He threw it at the Sky Snail, and it exploded. 

He led her to the highest peak of the mountain, and held her hand, pulling her up to the peak. The sun touched the clouds below them and mixed in orange and pink in their surface. 

“Is a wonderful life. Is a wonderful life. Is a wonderful life.”

Alli gazed at the clouds. They were beautiful. And in her heart, she had always wondered if there was something below them besides the Great Nothing. Before, she hadn’t been brave enough to find out. But now…

“Down there, Alli, a world awaits,” Cody said to her. She breathed deeply and turned to face him. 

“Okay, I’ll go,” she said. 

“Really?”

“Do you have a plan?”

Cody smiled. “There’s always a plan.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The adventure into the Great Nothing and Brittany's plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization. Lyrics do not belong to me. They belong to Smallfoot Soundtrack from genius. 
> 
> https://genius.com/James-corden-percys-pressure-lyrics

“I think the plan needs more planning,” Alli remarked. 

She was dangling upright from a rope over the edge of the cliffs, wearing a helmet and a thick harness fashioned out of some thick rope the team had made the night before, while Cody, Josh, Sam, and Matt stood watching from the ground above. 

“It’s been nice knowing you,” Matt called out to her. 

“I need to readjust the harness. It’s a little too tight.”

Cody stood guard to make sure nobody was coming, while Josh studied the length of the rope, with Matt standing beside him. 

“This should be enough rope,” Josh theorized. 

“Should be?” Alli asked nervously. 

“We don’t know exactly how far down it is,” Sam replied, tightening the end of the rope to a rock. “It’s also all the rope we have.” 

Josh laughed nervously, as Cody walked over to where the group is. 

“Alright, if we’re going to do this, we have to do it fast,” Cody said. “Josh, tell her the plan.”

Alli whimpered as she moved slightly, trying to keep herself upright. 

“Alright, listen up,” Josh said to her. “Pull once to go lower, twice to stay put, three times to come up. Four pulls mean you’ve reached the bottom and it’s safe for us to come down.”

“Wait, what was the second one?” Alli asked, her face seen from upside down. 

“Look, it doesn’t really matter,” Matt whispered to her. He was sure that the mission was going to end in disaster. Sam grabbed Matt and tossed him out of the way, taking his place. 

“Your safe word is ‘mystical creature’,” she said to her, waving her hands mystically. 

“That’s more of a phrase, really,” Alli commented. 

“If you shout it, we’ll abort the mission and pull you right up.”

“How about just ‘help’? I’ll scream ‘HELP’. Nice and short.”

“You’re going to do great,” Cody told her. 

Alli blushed under her furry cheeks. “Yeah? You really think so?”

“Let’s do this!” Josh said, and he let go of the rope holding Alli for a moment. 

She yelped, but the rope was grabbed by Josh again and it stopped falling. She breathed a few times as she was lowered to the clouds below. Her body made contact with the surface as she frantically made swimming motions with her arms. 

“Alli!” Matt called down. Her head popped up from the clouds as she cried. “If you die, can I have all your worldly possessions?” 

The others rolled their eyes and scolded him together. “Matt!”

“Right, sorry. When you die.” 

Alli gave a confused look at him, and her face disappeared beneath the clouds as Josh lowered her further. 

“What do you see?” Cody called down, Sam and Matt looking over the edge trying to get a better look without falling over. 

“So far just seeing clouds…and more clouds,” Alli reported from below. Then she gasped and the rope shook slightly. “Oh, my gosh! What was that?”

“WHAT?” The group gasped. 

“Sorry, just my hand.”

They sighed in relief as Josh held on to the rope holding Alli as she continued. “Still just clouds. And more clouds. Hey, there’s a lot of clouds.” 

However, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching them. Then Nate’s voice rang out. 

“Cody, you out here?”

“Nate!” Cody hissed and jumped behind a rock to hide, panicked. Sam and Matt yelled while Josh looked from behind to hear Nate coming towards them on his mammoth. 

“Uh-oh,” he said, and he accidentally let go of the rope. 

“’Uh-oh?‘ Why ‘uh-oh’?” Alli had heard Josh from below the clouds. The rope fell off of the top of the rock and landed on her hands. 

“Uh-oh.” She dropped suddenly. “Mystical creature!” 

“Hey, what are you freaks doing out here?” Nate asked the group from his mammoth, Cody still hiding behind the rock. 

“Mystical creature!” Alli’s voice shouted from below. 

Nate perked up, hearing her voice faintly. “Uh, what was that?”

“It’s, uh, the, uh,” Sam replied nervously, watching the rope unravel swiftly. “the wind! Yeah, it makes strange noises out here.” She glanced at Josh and dMatt, and they started making wind noises. 

“Oooooh…whiiisssshhhhh…mystical creatuuuuurrrrre…”

The rope went taut, catching on the rock that Sam had anchored to. It also stopped Alli, who yelped when the harness suddenly tightened around her waist, from falling. The team glanced at it, relieved that the rope had held. That meant Alli was safe. But then…

The rope broke from the rock. 

“Ahhhh!” the three Yetis cried. 

Alli screamed as she fell again below. 

“Stop it,” Nate moved forward on his mammoth, eyeing the three in suspicion. “You’re all acting weird. I don’t like weird. Weird is…weird, okay?”

The mammoth’s huge foot accidentally stomped on the split end of the rope before it went over the edge. The rope went taut again, slamming Alli into the side of the mountain. 

“I thought I heard Alli’s high-pitched kind of annoying voice,” Nate continued. “Where is she?” He pointed at Matt when he asked them. 

“Hanging over-” Matt began, but Sam stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth and pulling him towards her. Josh placed his arm on the rock beside him, smiling nervously. 

“Honestly, we have no idea about the status of her whereabouts,” Sam replied. 

“How many times was up?” Alli held onto the rope down below, screaming up as loud as she could. “How? Many? Times?”

“Something’s not right here,” Nate said, eying them suspiciously. “Let me think about this.” 

He thought long and hard about it, while still sitting on top of his mammoth. Cody looked from behind the rock, his face deadpanned before Josh gestured for him to hide. 

“Something’s not adding up,” Nate tried to think but gave up. “Yeah, I can’t do math. You’re coming with me.”

He turned to leave and his mammoth lifted up the foot that had been anchoring the rope. The split end began to snake through the snow once more. The three Yetis cried out in panic. 

“Oh, no!” Cody whispered, watching the scene from his hiding place. 

The end of the rope fell off the cliff until Alli had stopped attempting to climb back up while still in the air. 

“Definitely not enough rope,” she called. And with nothing to anchor her, she began to plummet. 

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” 

The helmet flew off her head, and the harness was loosened from her as well. She continued to scream as she fell through the clouds until she slammed back-first into a snowbank. 

She gasped as she looked to find her body still intact from the fall. She sighed in relief, but then gasped when she saw the mountain towering over her. She couldn’t see her friends-just the mass of fluffy clouds separating her from them. 

“Guys? GUYS?” she yelled. 

“Ay-yi-yi,” Alli muttered, as she stood up and stretched her neck-and her jaw dropped. 

“Oh, wow,” she breathed. 

A huge, beautiful mountain range stretched across the horizon as far as the eye can see. Snow topped the mountains peaks rising into the lie sky. Alli had never seen anything like it. 

“This is so not Nothingness!” She cried as she outstretched her arms. “This is definitely…Somethingness!” 

A large bird with black wings, a red head and white collar of feathers soared in front of her. Alli’s face lit up at the beautiful sight of the condor. 

“Whoa.”

Alli heard an animal call, and she gasped when she saw a goat with curled horns and white, shaggy hair. 

“Oh, my gosh, look at you,” she laughed as she noticed the creature on the rock and waved at him. “Hi, little guy.” 

The goat bleated and waved back at her-but then the condor swooped down and grabbed the goat in its talon. 

“Oh, no!” 

The goat bleated in distress as the condor started to carry it away with it. 

“That is just harsh!” Alli scolded, horrified. “I’ll teach you a little lesson.” 

She quickly formed a snowball and tossed it at the bird. “Take that!” 

It hit the condor, and the bird dropped the goat, which screamed and landed on all fours and scrambled down the mountain. 

“Yes!” Alli cheered. “Run, little one! Run, run! Be free!” 

Her eyes followed the goat-and then spotted an object in the snow. 

“Oh! The shiny, flying thing!” 

She quickly slid down the mountain and slowly walked towards the crashed airplane. It was in more shambles than the last time she saw it. She noticed a figure sitting in one of the seats, wearing a helmet. She squeezed inside and gasped as she saw the figure. 

“A Smallfoot,” she whispered. 

The figure, which turned out to be the same goat, only it was wearing a helmet, turned and screeched when it saw her. 

“Ahhhhhh!” Alli screamed. 

The goat jumped out of the plane and ran away screaming before Alli jumped up-but she was trapped in the plane since she had squeezed inside. She attempted to get out, but she felt her feet sliding down the snowy hill. 

“Uh-oh. No, no, no, no, no, no…” She tried to stop, but her feet tripped and the plane was gliding over the ground. Alli popped her head through the roof, and saw the condor on a rock, approaching her fast. She shrieked before the plane hit the rock, missing the bird luckily. A spark from the hit caused the propellers to fire up and fly down the mountainside at high speed. 

She turned the plane to avoid the trees, and she sighed in relief. However, she saw two trees and screamed. The plane hit the two trees, sending Alli flying through the window. She looked behind her and lifted the window off of her face before she shrieked again. 

Hitting three evergreen trees, she landed in another snowbank and began to roll down a steep slope, picking up more and more snow as she rolled. She had become a giant Yeti snowball! Every time she rolled, her face hit the snowy ground, leaving behind the mark of her face. She saw a giant rock ahead of her and yelped. 

“Rock! Rock! Rock!” Alli cried. She hit the rock, launched into the air, and then landed on a rope bridge. 

Pulling her from between the two planks, she pulled up the ropes and stepped on the planks, but they fell and only her feet and hands were holding onto the ropes. The bridge snapped and fell under her weight, and the single rope that still extended across the canyon was all that’s left of the bridge so that she was dangling over the abyss. 

The singled rope snapped bit by bit and her eyes widened in terror. “No, no, no, no, no, no…”

The rope broke, but Alli managed to hang on to each split end. She looked both ways, and then down. She pulled the two ends together only a few times before the two stone pillars broke off and hit her, trapping her together. 

“Ow,” she muttered. 

She was able to push the two stone pillars off of her, and grab one, which stood upright for only a moment before it suddenly fell down the abyss under her. 

“Ow,” she muttered once more before the other stone pillar teetered and fell on her, too. 

*****

Night fell hours later, and Alli climbed out from under the rocks, groaning. The moon was shining in the night sky, lighting up the snow-covered ground below her. She crawled for a while before coming across a path in front of her. On that path, she saw footprints-tiny footprints. 

Alli looked closer and gasped before placing her two fingers between the footprint, which led to more leading to a shelter on some sort. She paused for a moment, considering what she should do. She realized she had no choice. There was only one thing to do. She followed them. 

Alli followed the tiny footprints across the snow when she heard strange noises, music. She slid across the snow and hid behind a rock to avoid being seen. A strange dwelling with wood and a peaked roof appeared from behind the disappearing fog, light glowing from within and music coming from inside. 

What she hadn’t noticed was that she was looking at a restaurant, the Yak Shack, which is in a village of humans and where everyone in town liked to gather. 

She gasped as she saw two shadows from a window talking. 

*****

“Okay, okay, back up, back up,” Ginger said in disbelief. “You want to interview a man who says he saw a Yeti? And you actually believe him?” 

“Of course not,” Brittany replied. “But it makes for good TV.”

“That man has altitude sickness,” Ginger pointed at the pilot who is drinking from a mug and moving the mike of his helmet away from his mouth. “He needs help.”

“After he helps us.”

“What?”

“Ginger, do you know what this village is famous for?” Brittany led Ginger to a poster on the wall of a Yeti, which was surrounded by other Yeti-themed posters. “Yetis! More reported Yeti sightings here than anywhere else on the planet.”

“So?”

“Picture this. We’re here looking for the Himalayan jumping spider, but we capture on film,” Brittany made a picture frame gesture with her hands on Ginger’s displeased face. “A Yeti! We post the video, it goes viral, then BOOM! My ratings skyrocket!” 

“Yetis don’t exist,” Ginger reminded her. 

“Or do they?” She pulled up a suitcase on wheels and unzipped it. The head of a white, furry Yeti costume stared at them with plastic eyes. “Ta-da! Picked up a suit in town this afternoon, and it’s a cracker! It even has stilts and everything!”

“You’re going to put that thing on and deceive your fans?”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” Brittany wiped a fake tear from her eye as she laughed. “That’s hilarious! I’ll be on camera, you’ll be in the suit!”

“Wow, what has happened to you? Where’s the Brittany Ambers who loved animals? Who inspired me to love them? Who had integrity!”

“I have integrity!” Brittany insisted. 

“Mmm,” Ginger frowned. 

“Okay, yes, this isn’t about integrity. I have to do this one thing without integrity, and then I’ll just be all about integrity, all the time. I will ooze integrity. I will bathe in it. I will endorse an energy drink called Integrity-not for free-but I will take that money and give it to charity. That’s how much integrity I’ll have!” 

Ginger was not going to support Brittany in this, especially with a Yeti costume, so she turned and walked away. 

“Ginger!” Brittany bumped in a pole behind her before leaping in front of her. “Please! No one is watching my show! Do you want to save a species on the verge of extinction? Save me!” 

Ginger sighed and headed towards the exit. 

“Ginger!” Brittany reached for her, but then heard music and saw a man with a microphone and two other men behind him, about to propose to his girlfriend. 

“Ginger, wait!” The other woman stopped and glanced at her with an annoyed look. “Let me explain!” 

Brittany leaped onto the stage and bumped aside the man, who yelped and grabbed the microphone. The two men looked at each other and shrugged before Brittany began. 

“I thought I’d made it, celebrated, when I got my TV show,” she sang, as the dancers danced along. “But the haters out there hating got my ratings low, low, low.” She placed her hand on her forehead, and one of the dancers caught her. 

“It’s hard to compete with videos of twerking hogs,” she pulled out a video of other animals doing crazy things in videos from her phone. “And water skiing squirrels and monkeys riding on the backs of dogs.”

“So much pressure.” the dancers sang alongside Brittany. 

“Have mercy! I’m not the Brittany that you’ve always heard about,” she continued, as Ginger, with her arms folded in front of her chest, and a few other diners watched her. “That Brittany, she was successful, that Brittany had a lot of clout. Back then, back when, I was high on that hill. But now, I’m broke here on the bottom with no way to pay my bills.”

“It’s getting harder every day to catch a break. So when I see a chance, then it’s a chance I really need to take,” she gestured at the Yeti costume, and it gave a thumbs-up at her. “I’m just looking for a way of bouncing back. The rent is due, I’m in a fix and I’m about to crack.”

“Under pressure,” the dancers sang. 

“Ginger, I’m making this up on the spot,” Brittany panted and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Ginger shook her head and sighed. 

“Under pressure,” they sang again. 

“Which is impressive, let’s be honest. Come on!” 

A light shone on Ginger and she became surprised when Brittany slid on her knees in front of her. 

“Ginger, Ginger, I’m a desperate woman! So help me get back on the top a-rockin’ again!” 

“No pressure,” the men sang. 

“Ginger, Ginger, won’t you hear my plea? The weight of all the world is really weighing on me!” 

“So much pressure.”

“This is no time to quit, I’m on the verge of a hit. And I’m determined to make this a success, yeah. Ginger, tell me you see all the potential of me. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you say yes.”

Brittany was back up on stage, still holding the microphone in her hands as she kept on singing. “Down on my knees, begging you, please. Won’t you tell me you understand? Lend me a hand. All you’ve gotta save me, save me, save me, save me!” 

As soon as she finished, she panted and dropped her hands to the floor. 

“Those aren’t even the words,” the man who was about to propose shook his head at Brittany. 

“You think I don’t know that?!” She yelled in the microphone at him. She looked to find Ginger already gone. 

“Ginger? Ginger!” Brittany then glanced at where the suitcase was, but it was gone. She realized that Ginger had taken it with her. 

“No, no, no. The bag! The suit! No!”

If she didn’t make this plan work, her career was over!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the Smallfoot for the first time and learning communication.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization.

She tiptoed behind the side of the Yak Shack and peeked from around the corner to find a shadow walking into the restaurant and closing the door. Alli gasped and stepped closer to look through the windows. Before she could have a glance, however, she heard a bleat coming from behind her and spun around with a gasp. 

The goat from back up the mountain looked at her and screamed, an object in front of it. 

“Ssshhh, ssshhh!” Alli panicked and shushed at the creature, which thankfully stopped screaming and went back to chewing on the object. 

“Hey, whatcha got there?” Alli approached the creature. “Sshh, it’s okay.” 

She petted the goat and pulled the object-a sneaker- from its mouth, as it bolted away. She held it up to her foot and gasped. 

“I must be close.”

The door to the restaurant suddenly opened, and Alli spun to see a creature. A Smallfoot with platinum blonde hair and stressed-out grey eyes. 

“There it is!” She whispered. 

The Smallfoot pulled out a box of some sort and rubbed her forehead in distress. 

“I should introduce myself. Oh, but why am I so scared?”

The Smallfoot was talking into the box in its hands, but to Alli, it sounded like squeaks and chirps were coming out of its mouth. 

“Hmm, no language skills,” Alli pondered, tapping her chin. “Didn’t see that one coming.” 

She cautiously made her way towards the Smallfoot-Brittany, who is leaving a message for Ginger-and tried to talk to her, with no avail, since she was speaking on the phone. 

“Ginger, please, it’s just this one time,” Brittany pleaded as she was on the phone. “Then we’ll do the whole integrity thing, I promise. Please call me when you get this.” 

As she ended the call, Brittany stopped and glanced down to see an enormous, furry foot with brownish toes, and looked up to see Alli grinning down at her. 

“Thank you, Ginger!” she exclaimed; she was mistaking Alli for Ginger inside the Yeti suit. “Oh! You even put on the stilts! I love it! And the suit doesn’t look fake! It’s actually convincing, real, even! Okay, so here’s the shot. I’ll film over there…”

Alli kept on grinning, even as the Smallfoot talked and went around her and acted like a monster, before returning to her original spot and tried to find a good shot. 

“She’s doing all the talking,” Alli muttered to herself. “Just say something, you idiot.” She took a deep breath. 

“Here we go.” 

She stepped forward to where Brittany is. “Hi, I’m Alli, and I have-”

But all Brittany heard from her were growls and snarls, as she tried to introduce herself. She stared at her in awe before replying. 

“Wow, good growl. Did you put an amplifier in there or something? This is exactly why I work with you, Ginger. When you’re in, you’re all in!” 

Alli’s grin fell as Brittany ran in front of the Yak Shack, pulling out her phone from her pocket and hit the record button. A telescoping arm shot out, and she flipped the camera towards her so that she could film herself. 

“Okay, hair looks good, nice bit of backlight,” Brittany mumbled and she rambled a few words before starting her shot. “ Okay. Yeti discovery shot take one!” 

She clapped her hands to act like a movie starter, and she changed her voice so that she sounded breathless, as though she’d been hiking for a very long time. 

“Brittany Ambers here, high in the Himalayas,” she began. “I was looking for the rare-” 

Alli’s head poked into the frame as she tried to introduce herself to Brittany, her growls and snarls still audible for her to hear. She chuckled and pushed her out of the camera frame. 

“Not yet,” Brittany said. “Thank you. Okay, cut that bit, and in three, two, one…” She began the narration again and changed her voice back to the breathless part. 

“I was looking for the rare Himalayan jumping spider, but I just heard a low growl coming from this direction.” 

She spun the camera to face Alli, who was confused at what she is doing, then back her as she gasped. 

“Ahhh. Is that…a Yeti?” Brittany cried, sounding like a bad actor. 

“Do the growl,” she whispered to Alli, who still stared at her. 

At that moment, Brittany and Alli heard the sound of an engine beside them, and she whipped the camera in that direction to find Ginger on a snowmobile putting her helmet on with the suit in the bag behind her. 

“Do you mind?” Brittany groaned in annoyance. “Will you turn that off, Ginger? I’m trying to shoot Ginger in this…” She spun the camera at Alli, then her voice trailed off as the realization hit her. 

“Wait a minute…?” Brittany moved the camera at Ginger who had sped off without noticing the other woman and Alli, then back at Alli. 

“Ginger?” 

Then back at the place where Ginger was. Then back at Alli. 

“Ginger?”

The Yeti smiled at her, but a soft growl was what Brittany heard. The human gasped as she realized that she was actually talking to a Yeti instead of Ginger in the costume the whole time. 

“It’s a Yeti, it’s a Yeti, it’s a Yeti,” Brittany could barely get a word out. “I can’t seem to shout.”

“You know, you’ll laugh, because in my world, everyone thinks you’re this terrifying monster, that’s all,” Alli laughed as she moved her arms to mimic a scary monster, but Brittany heard only growls from her. 

“But you don’t look terrifying to me,” As Alli crouched in front of her, Brittany stumbled backward and fell, shaking with fear. “You’re adorable.”

Brittany screamed and scrambled to where the Yak Shack is. 

“Oh, the Smallfoot song,” Alli said, remembering the frightened screams of the crashed pilot, as she chased after Brittany. “I know this one. I know it, I know it.” 

She jumped and landed in front of her and screamed, her arms up. Brittany did the same and ran the other way. 

“Was that not right?” She called after her. 

As she ran, Brittany tripped over a box and her animal tranquilizer gun slid out of her backpack and skidded to a stop in front of the curious goat, who spit out the discarded near the moment it laid eyes on the gun. Brittany yelped as Alli got closer to her. 

“I just need to take you home and prove to everyone that you exist so I can get unbanished, okay?” Alli tried to explain to the terrified woman. 

By now, she had her trapped against a wall. Brittany glanced to find the goat dragging the tranquilizer gun away in its mouth, and up at Alli, who still sounded like she was snarling. She had to get to it, somehow! She yelped and picked up a ski pole that was leaning against the wall, an idea dawing on her. 

“Do you want to bring anything?” Alli asked her, walking closer with her arms still up. Brittany hurled the ski pole at her and it stuck onto her forehead, but she didn’t flinch. 

“Okay,” she said as she pulled it out from her forehead. 

Brittany laughed and dove through Alli’s legs, slid across the snow and grabbed the tranquilizer pistol from the goat’s mouth. Her hands shaking, she turned it and aimed it at Alli, who is inspecting the ski pole thrown at her. However, the auburn-haired Yeti saw her with the gun in her hands. 

“You want to bring that, too? Okay, come here.” 

Her snarls and growls still answered to Brittany as she panted, her hands still shaking as she held the gun. 

“Ooh, that looks cool.”

Before Brittany could even shoot it, Alli reached out and tapped the gun, which caused the dart to fire straight up into the air. Realizing it as a good distraction for Alli, Brittany broke into a run, screaming as she ran the other direction. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Where are you going?” Alli called out, laughing. “Look how excited you are!” 

Brittany felt a large hand pick her up, letting out a loud yelp. 

“No, no, no, no, no.” Alli grabbed at her, but she slipped through her fingers like a bar of soap, and shot up into the air, and then landed on top of Alli’s head. Alli chuckled and she was about to grab her, but Brittany grabbed onto her horns and fur, trying to find a way to bring the Yeti down, her feet pulling at her mouth, as she moved while still laughing. 

The tranquilizer dart flipped the other way and sailed back down from the sky. 

Alli only thought she was playing with her as she flopped onto the ground, laughing. “Ha-ha-ha! That tickles!” 

But Brittany didn’t hear playful laughter; she heard only grunts and growls, as she thought Alli was fighting her. She struggled desperately, trying to get away, but fate had other plans for Brittany. 

The dart landed on Brittany’s butt as she yelped, and tranquilizing her. She pulled it out from her butt and glanced at it as the sleepy effect took hold. 

“That’s ironic,” she said before her eyes rolled back, and then she fell off of Alli’s head, and landed on the ground, unconscious. Alli stopped laughing to find the Smallfoot on the snowy terrain motionless. 

“Um?” She got up from the terrain and knelt over Brittany. “Smallfoot? Hello?” 

She poked her on the side of her face and a little tooth fell out from her mouth, due to her poke. 

“Ooh, is that supposed to fall out like that?” 

She picked up the tooth and placed it back inside Brittany’s mouth, moving it around to place it back in properly. “Let me put it back in here. Go there, right?” Alli pulled her finger out of Brittany’s mouth, and her head hit the snow, as she had suddenly fallen asleep. “Oh, boy.” 

It actually wasn’t a bad turn of events, because now, Alli could simply carry the Smallfoot back to her Yeti village. She glanced at the scattered belongings on the ground and back at Brittany before she nodded, her face turned to a determined expression. 

She picked up a sleeping bag, which had fallen from Brittany’s bag, then picked her up by her foot, stuffing her inside. Then she picked up a length of rope, which had fallen from her bag as well, strapping the sleeping bag to the front of her chest, and picked up her backpack, placing it inside with Brittany, too. 

“Hope you don’t mind,” Alli told the sleeping Brittany, and she tightened the rope before patted her lightly on the head with her finger. “But I’m taking you home.” She got up from the ground and started up the mountain back to her village. 

“I’m gonna be like ‘Yo, what’s up? And they’re gonna be like, ‘Is that a what?’ And I’m gonna be like, ‘Yeah!’ And their faces are gonna be like…” She squealed in delight, mimicking the soon-to-be excited faces of the people. “Then my face is gonna be like ‘Uh-huh’. Smallfoot exists, suckas!” 

She jumped off from the rock on front of her, and made her way back home, to her village. 

*****

As Alli whistled her song, she happily walked up the mountain, thinking about how amazing it would be when everyone realized she had been telling the truth all along, with the sleeping Brittany strapped to her chest. However, her whistling trailed off when she saw a fog-like cloud heading towards her racing. She stopped and studied closer. 

“Is that a blizzard?” Alli wondered aloud. 

A strong wind and curtains of snow hit her straight in the face, answering her question. Blizzards often sprang out of nowhere in the mountains, and now she was caught right in the middle of it. 

She tried to push against the winds, but they only pushed her farther and farther back, her feet sliding against the snowy hills. She slid across the ice, and she was pushed right into a big, dry cave. She landed with a thud and sat up straight, panting. 

“Are you okay?” She picked up Brittany from her chest and glanced outside, where the blizzard blew with all its might, the foggy atmosphere covering the sky. “Man, that storm came out of nowhere, did it?” 

She knelt on the ground and unstrapped the sleeping bag from her chest, smiling. “We’re gonna wait it out here, nice and warm.”

Brittany tumbled out of the sleeping bag, and landed on the floor of the cave with a loud clink; covered in ice, she was frozen like an ice pop.

“Aaahh! No!” 

Desperately, Alli picked the Smallfoot up and breathed on her a few times. If she couldn’t save her in time, she would never prove to her village that the Smallfoot exists.

Noticing that it’s not working, she rubbed her against her fur to warm her up, to no avail, either. 

She tapped her on the ground next, trying to shatter the ice around her body, whining in panic.

“Please, don’t die. Please, don’t die. Please, don’t die. Please, don’t die.” Alli frantically rubbed Brittany with her hands rapidly like she is creating a fire-

She stopped suddenly. Fire! That’s it!

Sticks were scattered across the floor of the cave, so Alli placed Brittany down and quickly gathered the sticks into a pile. She then found two rocks and banged them together, sparks coming out from the impact on the rocks being hit. 

“Don’t worry, Smallfoot! I’m going to save you. Just hang on! Hang on!” Alli banged the rocks together once more and the sparks landed on the sticks, a fire beginning to burn. 

*****

Brittany’s eyes fluttered open, the effect of the tranquilizer wearing off. 

“Oh, fire. So warm, so nice,” she mumbled. 

But then, she realized that her whole body was spinning; first, she was facing the fire from above, then she was lying faceup above it, then over the fire again… 

“Wait a minute. What…”

Her eyes fully wide open, Brittany screeched and struggled to get out of the ropes holding her over the fire. Alli had made a spit over the fire and was turning Brittany on top of it like a barbeque master cooking a piece of meat, but in truth, she just wanted to warm her up from the cold. 

“How’s that? Nice and toasty, all the way around.” 

The Smallfoot screeched in panic and Alli turned her face up quickly. 

“Hey, what’s wrong? You hungry? I found your food.” She leaned down and grabbed an apple from Brittany’s backpack, stuffing it into her mouth. 

“HELP!” Brittany’s scream was muffled due to the fruit stuffed onto her mouth, and she was being turned over the fire again for only a second before Alli stopped again. Not that it made a difference to Alli. 

“Still cold? I can see why,” Alli said, examining Brittany as she continued to cry with her mouth full. “You have, like, no fur on.” 

She jumped up from the ground and began placing a rock against the wall of the cave. “Your cocoon’s almost dry. Hang on, I’ll clear off a space where you can lie until the storm passes.” 

The flames burned through the ropes binding Brittany to the spit, and she spat out the apple from her mouth and jumped off. She’d had to make a run for it, but it wouldn’t be easy getting past the huge beast. Before she tried, though, there was one thing she needed to do. 

While the beast was busy, Brittany turned on her phone and aimed the camera at herself, her breathing truly panting. 

“Brittany Ambers here in what may be my last broadcast ever,” she whispered. “I might get eaten, or roasted, or frozen solid. Or maybe a horrible combination of the three.” 

She paused dramatically. “But…know this. I risked my life in pursuit of something extraordinary. Something bigger, literally bigger than us.”

She focused the camera on Alli, who turned to look at her with a large stick in her hand. 

“Oh, great, you’re moving,” Alli said, pointing the stick at Brittany. “I’ve almost finished your-”

The Yeti growled and pointed the stick at Brittany, motioning at the rocks she had stacked herself. 

“I think she’s saying she wants to have me for dinner,” Brittany guessed in fear. 

Alli turned back and continued preparing Brittany’s sleeping area, her back turned towards her gain and moving the rocks on top one another. Brittany saw her chance and ran to the darker area of the cave with Alli noticing. 

She tried tapping on the screen, but she could only write letters on the message she was about to send to Ginger. 

“C’mon, darn frozen fingers!” She blew on her fingers to warm them up, and frantically typed a text with the video she had made. 

‘Ginger, give me my glory,’ she wrote. ‘Upload this video-and then send help!’ Brittany hit send and a loading bar was then seen slowly loading up. 

“Please, please, please,” she whispered frantically. The loading bar soon reached the top and her phone chimed. 

“Yes!” 

Then another message appeared: “Upload time…28 hours.” 

“Nooooooo!” Brittany wailed in anguish, her voice echoing through the cave. A low, rumbling answered her, but it didn’t sound like the Yeti. Brittany continued to record her adventure. 

“Something else is here,” she whispered into her phone. 

She turned on the flashlight app from her phone and scanned around the cave for the source of the growl. “Judging by the echo, I’d estimate distance is approximately two hundred meters.”

She suddenly came face to face with a giant bear only six inches from her face. “Estimations wrong!” 

The bear roared again, loudly, her breath blowing through Brittany’s hair. She screamed, and her survival instincts kicking in, she turned and ran. Unfortunately, she bumped right into Alli, and she fell back to the ground, illuminating the light onto her. 

Alli was about to reach for Brittany, but the mother bear appeared after her, and she perked up to see her walking towards them. Brittany turned the light to the mother bear first, then at Alli, who was growling as she walked towards her, her hand up. Terrified, Brittany dropped to her knees, cowering. There was no escape. 

Luckily, Alli knew what the bear was saying, even if Brittany didn’t. 

“My husband is back there, sound asleep!” she growled. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Alli quickly apologized. 

“Not to mention the children! It took me weeks to get them to sleep.”

“I don’t even have kids, but I can imagine that is just a really hard thing to do.”

“All I get is six months of a little mommy time, and you are ruining it!” 

They’re fighting over who gets to eat me! Brittany thought. Then Alli’s foot moved and hovered over her. She’s going to crush me!

However, her foot moved her behind her, and Brittany shined the light on her to find her hand motioning her to move. She shined the light on Alli, who motioned her again to run. Brittany saw her chance and made a run for it while Alli kept the bear busy talking. 

“You just walk into my cave. You don’t even wipe your feet!” The mother bear scolded her. 

“Again, very, very sorry!” Alli apologized again, and quickly ran, following Brittany. 

“You better be sorry! I don’t know what you are and where you came from, but you better learn some manners!” 

Brittany ran to the cave entrance, with Alli running at her heels. 

“Ha-ha, did you see what happened back there?” Alli said excitedly. “She was all like ‘You’re gonna wake my husband!’,” She mimicked the angry mother. “And I was like, ‘Hey, you gotta get outta here.’“ She feigned whispering at the next statement. “You actually understood what I’m saying! We’re communicating!” 

Brittany had only gotten a few feet outside the cave, laughing victoriously, when she heard a loud snap behind her, followed by a pitiful roar. 

She stopped and turned, wincing at the sudden noise. The Yeti sounded like she could be in pain, her howls echoing from the inside. Brittany paused, glancing at the village down below, then back at the cave. 

“Don’t be stupid, Brit,” she scolded herself. “Do not go back to help the ferocious Yeti! Don’t do it!” 

She turned to the village but stopped and turned back around. 

“Although, she did save you from a bear.” She grunted in frustration. “This is the wrong time to grow a conscience!” 

Brittany ran back into the cave, her phone flashlight in her hand, and slowed down to find Alli holding up her foot, a bear trap caught on her toe. The Yeti tried to remove it, but when she touched it lightly, it made her cry out in pain. 

Brittany’s heart melted, and she winced as she examined the bear trap. Why did she become afraid of her in the first place? 

“It’s alright, girl,” she said, patting the Yeti gently. “Let’s get this thing off. Does this hurt?”

A few times Brittany attempted to pry open the trap from her toe, and few times Alli grunted and made faces in pain. She looked away until the bear trap was no longer on her toe. She sighed and held her feet up. 

“Okay. It’s okay, I’m okay,” She told herself. 

Then a small drop of blood formed. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out. 

Her eyes opened slowly again to see Brittany wrapping her toe in a bandage. She pulled off the end and wrapped it in finally, squeaks replying to her. Alli got up and wiggled her healed toe, giggling in wonder. Brittany smiled at Alli, and she smiled back in gratitude. She glanced up to find the bright moon shining outside in the night sky. 

“The storm has passed,” Alli said. “What do you say me and you get up that mountain and prove you exist?”

Brittany stared at her blankly, tilting her head in confusion, and Alli finally realized something. 

“Oh, that’s right. Hand signals. Uh…” 

Brittany’s blank stare didn’t change. Alli got up and strapped the sleeping bag back to her chest and pointed at her first, then at the sleeping bag. 

As she stared in awe at Alli, she flipped open her phone and started recording her, while she continued making signs. 

“Okay, this is unbelievable, but I think the Yeti is actually trying to communicate with me.” 

She changed the camera lens towards her, just as Alli growled and pointed, showing the sleeping bag to her. 

“I think she wants me to go with her.” Brittany, an adventurer at heart, sighed deeply. 

“This is either the bravest thing I’ve ever done or the stupidest,” she reasoned and a few seconds later, she is back in the sleeping bag. “Here’s hoping it’s the former.”

Alli tightened the ropes to the bag before she stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot.” 

She picked up two some smoldering rocks from the fire. “Here, these should keep you warm.” 

“No, no, hot, hot, hot,” Brittany flinched as Alli dropped them into the sleeping bag, but she quickly realized that they were warm and toasty, and relaxed. 

“That’s actually quite nice,” she sighed, and Alli tightened the bag so she wouldn’t fall off. 

Alli began to bound up the mountainside, humping over a few cliffs, and high rocks, as Brittany gazed out through the hole of the sleeping bag, gasping a few times as Alli leaped from rock to rock. 

Alli grunted as she lept from another rock to the mountain wall, and she held on to Brittany still in the sleeping bag. 

“We’re almost there,” Alli promised. “Cody’s gonna be so happy!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new world opening up to the Yeti villagers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note; paragraphs are from the movie novelization. Lyrics do not belong to me. They belong to Smallfoot Soundtrack from genius. 
> 
> https://genius.com/Channing-tatum-wonderful-questions-lyrics

Back in the village, the feather alarm tickled Nabel’s foot, and she woke up and set up in bed. 

“Up and at ‘em, Alli! Time to ring the Gong!” She called out, fixing her hair up to a ponytail. 

She walked past Alli’s room, made her way to the launchpad and strapped on her helmet. Then, with all her might, she pushed the chair into launch position and climbed in. 

“Why is this so difficult this morning?” She asked herself

“Aaand launch!” She declared, but nothing happened. Without Alli to pull the lever, the chair wouldn’t take off. 

“Alli? Alli! Time to ring the-” Nabel glanced back before she realized. “Oh, yeah. Banished.” 

She knew she’d have to hit the lever herself. She reached behind, twisting and turning, but she couldn’t reach it. She stretched out her leg and hit the lever with her toe. Then she remembered. 

But it was too late. The seat flung forward, firing her at the gong. Her aim was way off; she bent her body and flapped her arms, trying to correct her course. It didn’t work. 

Nabel crashed into the side of the gong tower, splitting her helmet in two, and slid to the ground. 

She started to panic. No gong meant the Great Sky Snail wouldn’t wake up! They would spend the day in darkness. She picked the pieces of her helmet and smashed the gong with it, banging it two times. 

The double gongs rang through the village, which woke up in confusion, snails beginning to glow. 

“Two Gongs?” One couple asked in confusion. 

When Nabel got to her feet, the first golden rays of the Great Sky Snail were shedding light on the dark sky. She stared, dumbfounded. 

“What the…” But she stopped. “No, no. Push down, stuff it all down.” She breathed deeply and made a pushdown motion with her hands. She glanced down and found her helmet broken in two pieces. She picked it up, staring at them, before gazing back at the rising Sky Snail. She hadn’t rung the Gong, and yet the Great Sky Snail was awake. 

*****

“Drop me! Quickly before I change my mind,” Cody mumbled the last part to himself. He was dangling over the ice cliffs on the rope anchored by Josh, while Sam and Josh stood to watch; the S.E.S. members had not given up on their friend. 

“You can’t do this, Cody!” Sam pleaded. “You’re our leader!” 

“Exactly why I should do it!” Cody argued back. “Drop me!” 

He kept his balance on the harness and looked down in the clouds below him. “This is terrifying. I can’t believe Alli did this.”

“Which is why maybe, you know,” she chuckled nervously. “You shouldn’t!”

“I just wanna say I’m fine with it being you,” Matt said. 

“I should go,” Josh added. “I’m strongest and trained myself to sleep with my eyes open. I’m asleep right now. You’re all part of my dream.”

“She’s down there because I convinced her to go!” Cody said. “And she might be lost or hurt.”

“Or dead,” Matt said.

“Matt!” Sam and Josh yelled at him. 

“Oh, what? Now we’re not about finding the truth?” Matt asked. 

“Last time we dropped her because Nate showed up, which he might do it again, so let’s go!” 

The members had not noticed Alli climbing up and reached the top, before making her way towards them with Brittany strapped to her chest. 

“Guys! Guys!” She called out. 

“Oh, I can still hear her voice in my head,” Sam said, her hand against her head. 

“GUYS!” Alli repeated. 

“It’s in my head, too,” Josh replied, closing his eyes and glancing down at the ground. 

“Hey!”

Cody looked up and saw her running towards them and his eyes lit up. “Alli! She’s here!” 

“I know,” Sam said, her furry hand over her heart. “And she always will be!” 

“No, she’s here!” Cody shouted, turning himself around on the harness and pointed at Alli. “As in over there!” 

Sam, Josh, and Matt followed to where Cody is pointing at, and sure enough, Alli was calling out to them and making her way to where they are. 

“Alli!” Sam and Matt yelled in excitement. 

“Alli!” Josh exclaimed, accidentally letting go of the rope again. Cody began to drop, down in the clouds below him. 

“Ahhhhh! Mystical creature!” He yelled. 

“Oh, no! Ahhhh!” Josh quickly grabbed the rope again and yanked it with all his might. He pulled it with such force that Cody swung up in the air. 

Matt covered himself if he got squashed by Cody when he came back up quickly. 

“I got you!” 

Josh prepared himself to catch Cody, but the latter landed back at the cliff smoothly and ran over to Alli just as she was about to catch up with them. He ran over to her and lifted her up by the waist, spinning her around and laughing, as she yelped and giggled along, too. 

“Alli! I’m so relieved!” He stopped suddenly, realizing what he was doing, and set her back down to the ground. The two blushed under their furry cheeks. 

“Uh, hey.”

“Hi,” Alli chuckled nervously. 

Josh, Sam, and Matt joined them and flung their warms around the two Yetis. 

“See? I told you she’s not dead!”

“My sister!” 

“Alli! Oh, Alli!” 

While Alli was happy to see them, he gently pushed them away as Brittany in the sleeping bag squirmed around lightly. “Whoa-whoa! Guys, easy. Easy, easy.” 

Her friends slowly backed up, and that was when they noticed the sleeping bag strapped to Alli’s chest, with Brittany’s nose sticking out on the top. 

“What is that?” Sam asked, pointing at the little being. 

Alli unstrapped the sleeping bag. “Smallfoot Evidentiary Society, meet your mystical creature,” she said, as she placed Brittany on top of a rock. 

The female human began to wriggle around the bag and nearly fell off, but Alli pushed her gently forward. The others watched on until Brittany finally managed to slide out of the sleeping bag as the circle of Yetis surrounded her. 

“Huh?”

The four Yetis gasped in amazement and shock, and Brittany did the same. 

“I knew it was real,” Cody whispered in wonder. 

“No one’s gonna think I’m crazy anymore,” Josh replied happily. 

“She’s so beautiful!” Sam cried tears of joy. 

“And so short!” Matt said excitedly. 

“You did it, Alli!” Cody stood next to her. “You actually did it!” 

“No, we did it,” Alli said. “The S.E.S.!”

“Wow,” Brittany breathed in amazement. “Four more Sasquatch! It’s a whole Sasquad!” She pulled out her phone to record them, but Matt quickly picked her up, laughing in triumph. 

“Fear me, little creature!” He set her down and raised his arms at her. “I am your god!” 

“Matt, what are you doing?” Sam asked in confusion. 

“Establishing dominance.”

“No!” Sam picked Brittany up and placed her back on the rock. “We don’t dominate. We welcome her with open arms-” 

She outstretched her arms wide and accidentally knocked her off the rock. Cody winced, and Josh’s eyes widened. 

“Oh! Did I just do that?” She shoved Matt out of the way, and picked up Brittany, pulling her into a hug. 

“I am so sorry! Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Sam pinched Brittany’s cheeks, as she talked to her in a baby voice. “I’m so sorry. I love you. I love you.” 

Josh took Brittany from Sam and held her close to his face. “We gotta bring this truth to the village, blow some tiny minds.” He made an explosion sounds with his two fingers. 

“What was that?” Matt asked him, cocking an eyebrow. 

“Their minds are really tiny,” Josh replied, using his two fingers to show the size of their brains. 

“Josh’s right!” Cody said. “Let’s wake them up!” 

*****

Alli, with Brittany back in the sleeping bag behind her, Cody, Josh, Sam, and Matt strolled through the village gates as curious Yetis stepped out of their homes. The five friends strutted down the street with confidence, like they were the coolest Yetis on the planet. They’d just found a Smallfoot!

“What? Alli’s back?” The villagers gasped as Alli lead the four through the village, smiling with pride and waving at them to catch their attention.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Matt exclaimed. “In your face!” He tripped by accident and fell to the ground, face-flat. 

“Ow, my face!” He yelled in pain. 

“Hey, everyone!” Alli called out to everyone she saw. “Stop what you’re doing and follow us! ‘Cause this is gonna be the best part of your day!”

“You heard Alli!” Josh declared. “Everybody!”

Nabel, who is still holding her helmet, moved her way through a few passing Yetis squinted as the group strolled through. One of them looked familiar. 

“Alli?” She asked. 

“Hey, you up there! Come down here!” Alli called out to another Yeti. 

“You, too, Garry. Get over here!” She called out to Garry, who was nervous about what is about to happen. 

“Come on, kids,” Josh called out to the toddlers. They became curious and followed the five Yetis. 

“Let’s go! You’re gonna love it!” Alli shouted for the others. 

Meanwhile, as soon as the sun had risen without the gong, the Stonekeeper sent Nate out to investigate. The big Yeti stomped down the street and spotted Alli. 

“Hey, Alli, welcome back!” He said as he jumped off his mammoth, and then he remembered. “Wait, aren’t you supposed to be banished?”

“Yep!” Alli replied cheerfully. 

“Oh, cool.”

Alli and the others marched to the tree in the center of the village. By now, they’d gotten the attention of the entire village. The Yetis gathered round, sensing that something exciting was about to happen. 

“Everyone, listen up! Gather round. I promise you are gonna want to see this!” Alli declared. 

By now, the entire village had gathered around her. Cody, Josh, Sam, and Matt stood in the crowd, smiling with pride. 

Alli cleared her throat and began. 

“My fellow Yetis, there are moments in life that are imbued with such importance. We must pause and look deeper into the moment of the place which we are. To hold such beauteous gravitas and take in the beauty-”

“I’m losing interest!“ One Yeti yelled.

“Get to the point!” Another yelled. 

“Yep, okay. Here we go. Fellow Yetis! Behold…” Alli pulled Brittany from the sleeping bag and held her up over her head. “The Smallfoot!” 

She pulled off her boot for the villagers to see. They all gasped in shock and began to talk all at once. The toddlers climbed on top of one another, hoping to get a better look. 

Sam imitated an explosion, using her hands to make an explosion effect, and Josh nodded and hummed in agreement. 

Brittany didn’t mind being on display. She pulled out her phone and filmed the Yetis all gaping at her in awe. 

“I can’t believe my eyes,” she murmured. “These aren’t primitive beasts living in caves. This is a complex civilization! Do you know what this means for the world? A Brittany Ambers network special! You’re welcome, world!” 

Alli looked from Brittany to Cody, who grinned at her with contentment. 

“So,” Everyone turned and quieted down respectfully to the Stonekeeper who stood at the steps of the palace. “What’s all the excitement about this time?”

“Alli found a Smallfoot!” one of the Yetis replied. Alli held up Brittany for the leader to see. 

“That’s one guess,” the Stonekeeper shrugged. 

Alli’s jaws dropped. How could the Stonekeeper deny what was right in front of his eyes?

“But, Dad,” Cody said, standing next to Alli and pointing at Brittany’s foot. “Look at its small foot!” 

“Hmm,” the Stonekeeper said calmly. “Don’t yaks have small feet?”

Cody groaned in annoyance. 

“Let me take into the palace, consult the stones, and determine what it is,” the Stonekeeper said, holding his hand for Alli to give Brittany to him. He only received a glare from Alli and the others. 

“What if it is a Smallfoot?” Gary blurted out. “Does that mean a stone is wrong?”

“They’re all wrong,” Josh fake-coughed into his hands, Sam fake coughing alongside him. 

The villagers began to murmur to one another. Garry had a good point. 

Nabel looked at her broken helmet and hid it behind her nervously. Her sister was really stirring things up!

“Garry, just breathe,” the Stonekeeper said to Garry, then turn to the crowd. “Everyone, please! What do the stones say about questions?”

The villagers inhaled, holding their hands up. The Stonekeeper made a pushing motion with his hands and exhaled deeply. 

The villagers didn’t push down their questions. 

Instead, they ran to Alli, and their questions began to pour out like water from a faucet. The Stonekeeper had lost control. 

Brittany placed back on her boot and stared in amazement at the gathering crowd. Alli glanced at Cody, who smiled at her, and she smiled back. He turned to face his father, who had a disapproving look at him. He shrugged at him in response. 

“I have so many questions!” Garry yelled out. 

A circle of Yetis gathered around Brittany as she recorded them, Alli and Cody joining in the crowd. 

“Where is it from?” 

“Why is it pink?“

“How did you get it here?”

“What does it eat?”

“How does it think with such a tiny little brain?”

“Honestly, I have just as many questions as you do,” Alli said.

Alli had Brittany hoisted on her shoulder, carrying her around the village streets, flanked by Cody, Josh, Sam, and Matt. A fever of curiosity was spreading among the Yetis. They have spent their lives pushing down questions, and now the questions were all spilling out. Suddenly, they have questions and about everything and wanted to ask them. 

“Where is its horn?”

“Is that its ear?”

“Does it want a bite of fruit?” A Yeti vendor held out a fruit rock to Brittany.

“How is it here if the stones says it can’t be?”

“It’s all much bigger than we know,” Alli sang as Brittany recorded them. 

“How?” 

“Why?” 

“What do you mean?”

“It’s only just beginning to unfold,” she continued. 

“I’m so confused.” 

“There’s more to know?”

“So let it all unfold,” Alli sang and outstretched her arms, beaming. She loved seeing how excited all the Yetis are. It felt great. 

The Yetis on unicycles stopped pedaling. The ice-shopping Yetis stopped chopping. The ice ball polishing Yetis stopped polishing. They all looked at the world around them with new eyes. 

“I never knew there was more to know,” the villagers sang, as Brittany opened up a magazine and flipped to show a man with a paraglide. “Isn’t all so amazing?” 

“There’s a world mysterious, there for you to find,” Cody sang, as he and Sam made unicycles from the ice tower. 

“Out of the blue, there was room to grow. Isn’t all kinda crazy?”

“All we are is curious, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Alli sang, as two yetis made a xylophone from ice and using pickaxes to play it. She was joined by Cody and watched the villagers try new things. 

One Yeti hollowed out a ball of ice to make a drum. Another had carved a xylophone out of ice. The drummer started drumming, and the other played a happy melody on the xylophone. 

“So go around every corner,” 

“You call that art?” Nate asked one of the Yetis after he had thrown a paintball on a canvas. 

“Search every part of the sky.” 

“What is he doing?” One Yeti asked as he held a large telescope, the mammoth holding it as support. They were watching a villager with a paraglide of his own on top of a cliff. 

“Is he really gonna fly?” Another asked, looking through it. 

“Cause a life that’s full of wonder is a wonderful life.” Cody and Alli glanced up to see the Yeti flying in the sky over them with the paraglide. 

Alli decided to take Brittany on a ride on the ice block lift across the village, the latter amazed at the view from above. She took out her phone and caught Alli’s attention by waving her foot out at her. She held it up and they both smiled a the screen. 

They were both let down from the ice block they were stuck on by warm water being thrown at them, but Brittany yelped as the warm water suddenly turned cold, shuddering. 

A while later, she, Alli and Cody went snow sliding down the mountain, with Brittany on Alli’s head, until they lost their balance and they fell to the ground, laughing. 

Brittany stopped laughing to feel something touch her at the back of her neck, and she glanced up to find Blaze, who panicked and started jumping on Brittany, who luckily was left unharmed. She lept from underneath the mammoth, and Alli picked her up, leaving Cody to tame Blaze. 

“Blaze, sit,” he sternly said to his pet mammoth. 

“I got you,” Alli reassured Brittany, patting her in the head by her finger. 

“Down,” Cody said. “Down.” Blaze obeyed, sitting on the ground, his tail wagging. 

Alli and Brittany looked at each other, then laughed. 

Pictures were then taken of Brittany, the Yetis, and Blaze: one of them Britanny being introduced to Blaze, then Blaze hugging her tightly by his trunk, then Alli, Cody, Blaze and Brittany both grinning at her camera phone. 

The Stonekeeper watched the villagers try new things with dismay and looked down at his youngest son. “Do you see what you have started?”

“Yes!” Cody replied with a confident smile. “Do you? Look at them. We have been living in fear for too long, Dad.”

“All I ever wanted to do was to keep you safe, Cody,” his father said. “Everything I do, I do to protect the village. And you.”

“I don’t need you to protect me, I need you to listen to me. To all of us! Especially Alli!” Cody explained. “Dad, she went below the clouds. They’re talking to her because they have questions, and she’s listening, instead of telling them to push them down. Believe me, you are their leader, and they wish it was you. So, just talk to Alli about what she saw. Please.”

The Stonekeeper thought for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right, son. That is exactly what I need to do.” 

Cody grinned and hugged him. “Thank you, Dad. I knew you’d come around.” He then ran off to where Brittany was with the other Yetis. “I’m gonna go get the Smallfoot! Bye!” 

He thought his father was on his side, but the Stonekeeper had other thoughts. The turret had stopped turning. The ice elevators weren’t moving. And nobody was dropping ice balls into the statue’s mouth. 

He knew what he had to do. 

He had to get the villagers to stop asking questions before there would be consequences. 

*****

Meanwhile, a few toddler Yetis were rummaging through Brittany’s backpack, inspecting each item, and Brittany was trying to explain what they are. 

“That’s a snood,” she said to one who had a scarf-life cloth around his head. “It’s sort of like a scarf.”

“That’s a fiber supplement,” she said to another toddler who had a fiber supplement and ate it. “I’d rather not go into it.”

“That’s a sock. It’s sort of a lining between your shoe and your foot,” she said to one of the toddlers who had a sock in his hand, holding up her foot as an example. He stared at Brittany as he slurped up the sock like a strand of spaghetti. 

“That’s not how you’re supposed to…ugh. Four days I had them on.” 

She turned to find Josh holding a toilet paper at her, Sam, Matt and a few other Yeti villagers standing behind them. 

“Can you translate the scroll of invisible wisdom?” Sam asked her. 

Brittany paused and looked at it. “Uh…yes, actually, I do need this.” 

She took the roll from Josh’s hand and ran behind a rock. The Yetis looked on curiously, including the toddlers who were rummaging through Brittany’s backpack. 

Matt followed Brittany behind the rock to see what she is doing and groaned in disgust. He returned to the Yetis with a displeased look on his face. 

“It is not wisdom, and it is definitely not invisible,” he said. The Yetis’ faces fell at the mention of the realization. 

“Hey,” Cody ran up to Josh, Sam, and Matt. “Where’s Alli?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The horrible truth behind the past of the Yetis and the Smallfoot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization. Lyrics do not belong to me. They belong to Smallfoot Soundtrack from genius. 
> 
> https://genius.com/Common-let-it-lie-lyrics

Alli left Brittany with Cody and went to find her sister. In the excitement over the discovery, she’d forgotten that her sis must have been worried about her.

“Hey, Bel! Nabel!” She found Nabel sitting on the rim of the aiming circle. “Isn’t this the best ever or what?” 

Nabel didn’t answer her, she only stared at her broken helmet. Alli’s smile fell.

“Bel?” She climbed out onto the platform and joined her. “What’s wrong? What happened to your helmet?”

“I missed the gong,” Nabel replied softly, still holding and gazing at the broken pieces of her helmet. “But the Sky Snail, it came up anyway.”

She let her helmet fall to the ground and leaned back on the platform. 

Alli didn’t take this as bad news. “Whoa. So another stone is wrong. This is amazing.”

“Amazing?” Nabel sat up from the platform, glancing at her sister in half anger, half bewilderment, and stood up to face her. “What’s so amazing about it? The stones are supposed to be…stones! You know? Reliable, sturdy, true! And now the Snail is just rising on its own?”

“Even if it is a snail,” Alli said. “Cody thinks it might be a flaming ball of gas.”

“GAS?!” Nabel yelled. “I’ve been banging my head on that thing,” she gestured at the gong far ahead of them. “To wake up a gas ball?! That’s what usually wakes me up!” 

“Bel, I know all this change is scary,” Alli sighed and got up from the platform. “But maybe this is a good thing. Maybe there’s something even better than banging your head against the gong.”

“But if I don’t ring the gong, I’m not the gong ringer,” Nabel said. “And if I’m not the Gong Ringer, then what am I?”

She stared back at the golden gong far ahead. 

Alli didn’t have an answer for that. She was about to speak again, but Nate called to her from below.

“Hey, Alli! My dad wants to see you!” He barked. 

“The Stonekeeper? Really?” Alli called back. 

“Which must be nice for you, ‘cause he never wants to see me!”

“Okay,” Alli responded. 

“Why did I shout that out? This is so embarrassing,” Nate mumbled to himself. “Ugh. Blew it again, Nate.”

“Hey, Nabel, I’ll be back.”

Nabel didn’t reply; she was still staring at the gong, a disheartened look in her eyes.

“Bel?”

“Hmm.”

Alli looked back to see her sister one last time, before making her way to the palace. She hurried to the palace where the Stonekeeper waited for her on the steps.

*****

The Stonekeeper led her inside and walked her through the great hall, past a line of statues.

“Look at them. The great Stonekeepers of the past,” he spoke to her. “Each one adding new stones as they received wisdom about what was best for the village.” 

Alli studied the statues. The earliest Stonekeeper wore a single stone as a necklace. The next one wore a vest of stones. With each Stonekeeper, more and more stones had been added as more rules were made.

“Robe looks heavy,” she nodded to the Stonekeeper’s robe of stones, which touched the floor as they walked. 

“Oh, it is,” he replied. “It requires a strong backbone.”

They both stopped at the end of the great hall and the Stonekeeper stuck the bottom of his staff into a hole on the floor. Behind them, a wall lowered from the ceiling, and the leader pushed her forward to avoid getting squashed. The wall created a small room with no visible exit.

Then he twisted the staff in the other direction, and the sound of rock grinding on rock groaned as the floor beneath their feet sank, revealing a stone spiral staircase.

Alli’s eyes widened. The Stonekeeper motioned for her to go ahead.

“Whoa, secret stairs. Okay.”

The leader lifted his staff from the hole and followed behind her, who grew uncomfortable about what he is doing. She walked down the stars, darkness welcoming her bit by bit.

“Where are you taking me?” She asked as they walked down to the end of the stairway, through a path that leads to somewhere. 

“Aha, so many questions,” the Stonekeeper said to her, as he took a lit snail from the wall and placed it on his staff. “I think it’s time I give you answers.” 

He led her through the path to a massive cavern with carvings on the wall, as if they were telling a story. Alli gasped in astonishment at the sight in front of her.

“Wow. What is this?” she asked. 

“You see, Alli,” the Stonekeeper began and held his lit staff to show a carving of a Yeti family. “There was a time when Yetis lived beneath the clouds.”

The carvings of the Yeti family moved until they stopped at the crowd of humans.

“We were alive and we were thriving till we came across a crowd of Smallfoot. That’s right, we used to live down there. But there were actions we could not forgive down there.”

“And though they used a different nomenclature, man, or human, they showed us human nature. A dangerous species that we approached with wonder. They attacked with their spears and their smokin’ sticks of thunder.”

Alli studied the wall to see carvings of humans with spears and guns chasing Yetis. One man shot his gun at the Yetis.

“They called us Sasquatch, they called us abominable. They chased us, pursued us, their persistence indomitable. We had no choice but to run and hide. Otherwise, we surmised we were facin’ genocide.”

The carving of the Yetis and humans continued to move as they were shoved over a cliff, and one them was shot. Alli couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her Smallfoot wasn’t dangerous. She had helped Alli when she was hurt! Could these humans have tried to hurt Yetis?

“So we climbed this mountain just to stay alive. You see, we knew that up here, Smallfoot cannot survive,” the Stonekeeper continued, and he held up the first stone that was made years ago. “So it was here the first law was written in stone. It was named and proclaimed as a truth to be known.”

The stone is revealed to be of the Yeti mountain surrounded by the blanket of clouds.

“Our world is an island, it floats on a sea of endless clouds. That’s how it would be. And then we wrote more laws, more rules to obey. For the sake of us all, it was the only way, to protect us from all of the human ravages. Heaped upon us by those human savages.”

He banged his staff on the ground twice, and snails lit up, revealing the rest of the wall carved with images of Yetis being chased and killed by humans

“Now you know, now you know, now you know,” the lit snails of the wall sang.   
“Now you know, now you know.”

“And new rules apply,”

“Now you know, now you know, now you know,”

“So it’s best just to let it lie,” the Yeti on the carvings and the lit snails sang along with the Stonekeeper. “Let it lie.”

More of the carvings were showing Yetis being killed, hunted down and taken by the humans with spears and guns.

“Now you know, now you know, now you know. Now you know, now you know,”

“And you can’t deny,” the Stonekeeper said as he stood behind Alli.

“Now you know, now you know, now you know,”

“That it’s best just to let it lie,” the snails and the Stonekeeper. “Let it lie.”

“But my Smallfoot, she’s not like that,” Alli protested.

“They’re all like that,” the Stonekeeper replied. “Tell me, when you found her, did she greet you with open arms?”

Alli thought back to her first encounter with the Smallfoot, Brittany. She had thrown a ski pole at Alli-or had it been a spear? And she’d tried to fire a gun at her, just like the ones in the carving on the wall. It had been a tranquilizer gun, but Alli didn’t know that.

“They don’t care about us,” the Stonekeeper said. “They don’t care about anything but themselves. Which is why we must do the same if we care about our future“

He slammed his staff into another slot on the floor and pushed down. The wall opened up in front of them, and a hiss of hot air hit Alli’s face. The sound of rhythmic clinking called to her from inside a room full of steam. The Stonekeeper motioned for her to follow him, and she obeyed. After a few feet, the steam cleared, and Alli stared at a big, strange machine.

Part of the machine was a big fan, its blades slowly turning. The machine sat in a huge hole bored out of the mountain and continued to pump steam. The Stonekeeper, with Alli following behind him, stepped onto a platform which rotated and took them to where the fan resides. Through the fan, the two Yeti could see a blanket of clouds stretched across the blue sky. 

“Wait, we’re below the clouds,” Alli said, confused.

“Or so it would seem, but look closer,” the Stonekeeper said.

The truth suddenly hit her. “Those aren’t clouds, it’s steam!”

The Stonekeeper smiled as he walked towards the hole. “The stones are working.”

“The stones?”

“Every job and every task is pointless as it seems,” the Stonekeeper went on. “All of it ensures that this important machine keeps turning and turning and spinnin’ around. So those below don’t look up and those above don’t look down. And they’ll look ‘cause even if they hear of these atrocities, the only thing stronger than fear is curiosity.”

In a second machine, ice balls dropped from the machine into an enormous cauldron, where they melted and became water. A beam of light shone on the cauldron, creating steam. The fan turned the steam into the clouds that surrounded and hid the mountain.

“Now you know, now you know, now you know,”

That was when it hit her-the Yetis riding unicycles had been turning the turret that powered the fan!

“Wait so, so none of those stones are true, they’re all lies?” Alli asked, turning to face the leader.

“Now you know, now you know, let it lie.”

“Good lies to protect our world,” he replied.

“Now you know, now you know, now you know,”

Alli thought of all the Yetis, and how excited and happy they’d been to see the Smallfoot. How they had come alive when they’d started asking questions.

“But they need to know the truth,” Alli argued when she stepped in front of the Stonekeeper.

“Oh, do they?” he challenged her, and he stepped towards her, while she backed away. “You feel emboldened by your noble quest to find the truth. I chalk it up to the naive innocence of youth.”

They stepped onto the rotating platform, which took them back up to the top towards the carving room.

“So let me share a secret that you’ll learn as you grow older: What’s true or not true is in the eye of the beholder.” He pointed his staff at her as she continued to step away and he stepped closer towards her. “So do you wanna prevent our own annihilation?”

“Yes!”

“Then our only goal should be to control the flow of information. Unless you wanna see the Smallfoot conquer and pillage,”

“No!”

“Then protect the lie and you protect the village,” the Stonekeeper told her. “Lives are at stake, Alli. Your friends, your sister, Cody.”

*****

“Okay. I want to know everything there is to know about you and your world,” Cody said to Brittany, who was rubbing her arms as he held a large chalk-like rock to her. 

Brittany grinned, blew on her hands to warm them up, and took a small piece from the rock.

*****

“He’s curious and you know what they say: curiosity killed the yak.”

Alli felt a heavy weight on her heart. The truth was important. But so was being safe.

“So what do you want me to do?” She sighed.

“Tell everyone you were lying about the Smallfoot,” the leader replied.

“But they’ve already seen it,” Alli argued. “They–they’re not gonna believe me.”

“You’ll be surprised at what they’ll believe,” the Stonekeeper grinned as he patted her on the shoulder.

Alli turned to the carvings on the cave wall after it had closed, and stared at the drawings of the humans hunting the Yetis.

“You think knowledge is power, Alli?” the Stonekeeper asked her.

“Now you know, now you know, now you know. Now you know, now you know,”

“Question is…”

“Now you know, now you know, now you know…”

“What are you gonna do with that power?” He asked her.

Alli didn’t know. She was sure of only one thing: this was the hardest decision she’d ever had to make in her life!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heartbreaking betrayal and lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization.

“Okay, it’s a little fuzzy, but I think I’m starting to get it,” Cody said as he stared up at the wall he and Brittany had drawn on. 

Cody had taken Brittany back to his home. Now in his room, the Stonekeeper’s youngest son was trying to learn all he could from the Smallfoot. Because they didn’t speak the same language, Brittany drew a series of pictures for him, in order to describe the human world. Cody tacked the drawings all over his wall and studied them while Brittany watched as she sat on Blaze’s trunk. 

“Your job is to tell stories that fly through the air in a series of pictures in rapid succession that magically appear in other smallfoots’ homes,” Cody said. 

Although all Brittany heard were growls, she had an idea that this Yeti was smart. “TV. Right,” she said, making a shape to represent a TV. 

“And what is that thing here?” Cody asked her pointing at a house. 

“That’s the roof of my home,” Brittany said, gesturing above her and indicating a house. “Home.” She made a triangle shape with her arms. 

“Home?” Cody copied the movement. He heard high-pitched gibberish from Brittany as she repeated the word, and Brittany heard growling from him as he repeated the movement. 

“Are we saying the same thing?” she asked excitedly, and they both repeated the word and movement of the house. 

“Oh, is that, like, your best friend?” Cody asked as he pointed at the man with an angry face and money bags in his hands. 

“That is evil banker man,” Brittany answered, hopping off Blaze’s trunk as she imitated the man on the wall. “He wants to take away my home because of something called a ‘variable rate interest’.”

Cody growled in confusion. 

“Apparently, I don't know what it is, either,” she chuckled. She shivered and hugged her coat closer to her. “The air is really thin up here, isn’t it?”

Cody growled and pointed at the animals Brittany had drawn on the wall. 

“Those are animals,” Brittany said. 

Blaze trumpeted as he pointed at the wall, causing her to scream and fall to the ground. Cody laughed, followed by Brittany as she was nuzzled by Blaze in the trunk. 

“Cute,” she said, and she got back from the floor. “Anyway, the point is, this is why I do what I do. I was fascinated with other species, like you. Actually, nothing like you. You’re really extraordinary. But lately, I started to care about how many people are watching. About how popular I am. Wow. Hearing myself saying this out loud…what’s the Yeti word for ‘pathetic’?”

Cody only looked at her as she continued speaking. 

“When I was nine, I discovered my first lion. It looked like this, see?” Brittany took a small piece of the chalk-like rock and drew on the wall. Cody watched her in curiosity as she drew what seems to be a lion. 

“It looked nothing like this,” she said as she drew over the lion drawing. “That looks like a fat poodle. Here, I’ll just show you.” 

Brittany pulled out her phone, and she turned it on, a holographic picture of a lion appearing on Cody’s body. He gasped in surprise and attempted to touch it; which is impossible since it is a holographic image. 

“Okay. What is that thing?” He asked in wonder. 

*****

Alli ran up the staircase, the images of Yetis being chased by the humans never leaving her mind. How was she going to tell the others, her friends, about the truth behind the humans? 

No, she can’t.

She would have to keep up the lie, in order to protect them. 

“They don’t care about us.” The Stonekeeper’s voice echoed and repeated in her head as she thought about how she was going to tell them, to the Yetis, to Cody.

“Lives are at stake, Alli.”

“They don’t care about anything but themselves.”

“Good lies.”

“Which is why we must do the same. Protect our world.”

“Your friends, your sister, Cody.”

She pressed her hands against her head, trying to keep the voices out of her ears. 

“No, don’t do that! What are you doing?! You’re ruining it! Stop, stop it.”

Alli heard Cody’s voice as she walked through the palace halls. She entered his room and found him playing a game of some sort through Brittany’s phone with her, as she shivered and sat on his bed. 

“Red one up! Up, up! Now, over the blue one. Blue one. Three in a row. Yes!” 

“Cody…”

“Not now, Alli.” Cody continued to cheer Brittany on as she played the game, attempting to keep her strength as she played. “Ooh! Okay, down, down. Right side. Purple thingy. Slide it, slide it. Oh! There we go! Boom! Ha-ha! Whoo!”

Alli stared at in worry and confusion. 

“Alli, I’m putting shapes next to other shapes to make the rows disappear. It’s pointless and a total waste of time, but I can’t stop!” 

The shapes and rows suddenly disappeared, and the words that read ‘Game Over’ appeared on the holographic screen. 

“Aw, there goes our high score,” Cody groaned, but when he turned around, he saw Brittany wobbling on his bed, her skin blue. 

“Smallfoot?” He walked over to her and his body covered up the screen, revealing his wall covered in drawings of the mountain and people and other things. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Feeling a little woozy,” Brittany slurred, trying to keep her balance. “I’m going to need some more oxygen. Oxygen. I can’t remember my own name.”

Alli saw the drawings on Cody’s wall and walked over to it to study it. “Um, what’s all this?”

“Oh, uh, we learned how to communicate!” Cody answered her. “That’s her world, and I think it’s really big, and there are more Smallfeet down there. Like a lot more.”

She looked at the stick-figure drawings of humans that Brittany had made, to give him some idea of how many were actually out there. But Alli gasped in horror and imagined them all carrying spears. 

“Alli, I think something’s wrong,” Cody called to her. She turned and walked over to see Brittany, whose skin is pale, breathing trembling and is hugging herself to keep herself warm. “She doesn’t look so good. She’s cold and her breathing’s off.”

Alli heard the Stonekeeper’s voice in her head. 

You see, we knew that up here, the Smallfoot could not survive. 

“I think we need to take her home,” Cody said. 

“What? No!” Alli protested, and she swept Brittany up in her arms. The Smallfoot could not go back to her world! If she did, the Yetis’ whole village would be in danger!

“No? Why not?” Cody asked her, slowly walked towards her. “What if she’s really sick? What if she needs help?”

“Just stop asking questions!” Alli snapped. She couldn’t tell him the truth. 

Cody stopped, hurt by her words. “Stop asking questions?”

From outside, Nate blew his horn, calling the villagers’ attention. Cody and Alli looked through his window to find Nate on his mammoth and the Yetis heading towards the palace. 

“Attention, everyone!” Nate called out. “The Stonekeeper has an announcement.”

Cody saw the panicked look in Alli’s face and grabbed her arm before she went any further. “What’s going on? Do you know? You look like you know something.”

Alli pulled her arm away from Cody’s grasp and backed away. “Just stop, please!” 

And she ran off with Brittany towards the front of the palace. 

Cody glanced at where she had left, before turning towards the outside through his window.

The villagers were gathered around the palace, murmuring to one another about what is happening. 

“Well, well, well, what an interesting day it’s been,” the Stonekeeper said. “A day full of excitement and questions. So many questions. I must admit, the events of the day even had me asking a few.”

Josh, Sam, and Matt made their way towards the front of the crowd and eyed the Stonekeeper in suspicion. 

“I smell cover-up,” Josh whispered. 

“So I asked Alli to join me so I could question her about her amazing discovery,” the Stonekeeper continued, and Alli came up, carrying Brittany under one arm, an uncomfortable look in her eyes. “And together, we’ve reached the same conclusion. Alli, tell them about what we learned.”

“Yeah, um…”

Brittany panted heavily, her visions blurry as she saw the Stonekeeper first, then Alli. 

“The thing is, see…uh…” Alli started. “Yeah, it’s, uh… What I was going to tell you is, um…” 

She glanced at Cody who looked at her in confusion. Then she found Nabel amidst in the crowd, but her mind was envisioning her being impaled by spears all over her body. She gasped in terror. 

Josh, Sam, and Matt eyed her in suspicion. 

“It’s not a smallfoot,” Alli finished. 

The Yetis gasped and began to murmur. Josh and Sam were shocked and looked at one another in bewilderment. 

Matt laughed but stopped. “Wait, what?” 

Nabel sighed and shook her head in heartbreak. 

“Yeah. I was wrong,” Alli said. “I got confused, and the Stonekeeper figured it out. It’s actually a type of yak.”

She hated to do it. She hated the betrayed looks on her friends’ faces. But at that moment, she felt the Stonekeeper was right. The secret had to be kept safe. 

“A yak?” Cody asked in disbelief. 

“Alli found a rare type of breed that even I didn’t know about,” the Stonekeeper piped in. 

“No…” Cody started, but his father stopped him by holding him back with his elbow. 

“A red-coated pygmy hairless yak.”

“You know this is not a yak!” Cody argued. 

“As you can see, its existence is confirmed…in stone!” 

The Stonekeeper pulled out a stone with a person, a red smear covering it, and placed in his robes, alongside the other stones. 

The villagers gasped. 

“What is happening?” Sam whispered. 

“The stones have protected us for generations,” the leader continued. “But we’ve been ignoring them. No one’s been feeding the great mountain mammoths today.” 

The crowd gasped in horror. 

“He’s right,” one Yeti said. 

“And because of that, we are sinking,” the Stonekeeper declared. 

“I don’t wanna sink!” Garry yelled in panic.

“Garry… you are right to be afraid! Everyone listen to Garry!” 

“I don’t wanna sink in the nothing!” Garry cried. 

Josh, Sam, and Matt pushed their way through the crowd to the front. 

“These are lies, Alli!” Josh argued. “We saw you go below the clouds!” 

“I didn’t,” Alli lied. “I fell into the clouds, and I found her inside of a cave.”

“What?” Cody yelled. He looked at his father in astonishment. 

The villagers gasped in confusion.

“Don’t listen to her!” Josh shouted. “This is all part of a massive cover-up!”

“Please, just…” Alli started. 

“We are all part of a big machine.”

“Dude, no. Come on, stop!”

“I think it might be a big machine that’s down here!”

“You need to stop!”

“It does sound like a big machine!” Garry cried. 

“I thought so, too!” Lily’s mother yelled as she held Lily. 

“You heard me!” Josh continued. 

“JUST STOP!” Alli yelled at the top of her lungs. 

The crowd stopped murmuring and gasped at her sudden outburst. 

“A big machine,” Alli laughed, the comfort and guilt growing within her. “Right. Let’s all to Josh and his whacked-out theories, because we all know that Josh just straight up crazy.”

Josh gasped in shock. 

“What?” Matt asked. 

“Don’t call him crazy,” Sam yelled at her. 

“Come on, are we really gonna listen to those guys?” Alli continued. “They’re the village weirdos, right? We all know that. They’re just trying to prove all the stones wrong. But if we don’t follow the stones, really bad things can happen.”

Everyone gasped at the mention of the stones. 

Alli knew that the villagers might think Josh, Sam and Matt were weird, but they loved and respected Cody. She had to make sure they didn’t believe him-for their own good. For Cody’s own good. The mental image of the humans and their weapons had spurred her on. 

“Well said, Alli,” the Stonekeeper said, smiling. “That’s the truth.”

“The truth?” Josh asked, narrowing his eyes as he came face to face with Alli. “I don’t think anybody around here cares what that is.” 

Josh walked through the crowd, Sam and Matt following behind him after they glanced at Alli in anger and heartbreak. 

“Guys, wait…” Cody sighed and went after them. 

“Alli, give her to me,” the Stonekeeper said to Alli, gesturing at Brittany who was breathing heavily. 

Cody stopped as the three made their way through the village gates. 

“Wait, what are you doing?” 

He heard Alli ask and he turned to find his father taking Brittany from Alli and placing her in an ice box, which is being held by Nate. 

“No, no, no! She needs warmth, and she can’t breath!” he argued with his father. 

“Cody…”

“Why are you doing this?”

“This is something we should discuss inside,” the Stonekeeper replied with a serious look, stepping aside for Cody to head into the palace. 

“Inside…” Cody murmured. He watched his brother take Brittany in the ice box away through the great hallway. He sighed and nodded. 

“Yes, Father.”

“Cody, we need to talk,” Alli said as he walked past her. 

“I think you’ve said enough,” Cody glared daggers at her and walked into the palace. She watched him walk away, heartbroken and guilty over what she had done. 

“Okay, everyone,” the Stonekeeper announced. “Now everything can go back the way it was. Everyone, back to work. The village won’t run itself.”

Confused and unsure, the crowd nodded obediently at their leader and slowly began to return to their jobs. 

“The Smallfoot, what are you going to do with it?” Alli asked the Stonekeeper. 

“We’re taking her back to the cave where you found her,” he replied sternly, but she stopped him again. 

“But I didn’t find her in a cave,” she protested. 

“But you said you did, so they believe you. You’ve done a good thing, Alli.” The Stonekeeper moved past her and walked towards the palace. 

Alli was crushed. She turned towards the villagers who were moving back to their jobs, as the large door of ice slowly dropped over the entrance to the palace. She knew that the Smallfoot could not survive in there. Saving the village was one thing, did the Smallfoot have to die?

“Stonekeeper, wait!” She yelled, racing toward the entrance. “No!”

But the ice door dropped in front of her, blocking her way, and she banged on it as if she was hoping it would move on its own. 

“You’ve done your job, Alli,” the Stonekeeper said to her as he walked away. “Go home.”

Alli rested her head against the ice door, and she sobbed silently, as the sun disappeared over the horizon.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search after Cody and the Smallfoot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization. 
> 
> Little surprise in the end.

With the path she remembered Josh, Sam and Matt took her through, Alli headed towards the headquarters of the S.E.S. A few snails were still lit on the wall, but Josh, Sam, and Matt were nowhere to be found. 

She sighed and glanced around the partially dark area, until her eyes landed on the wall with the mountain, still surrounded by the blanket of clouds. 

She felt guilty and devastated about what she had done. Even though she had done what she could to protect her friends and Cody, she knew she didn’t mean for all of this to happen. And now, they all hate her. They all hate her for lying to them, for selling them out. For not telling the truth. 

Alli sighed and made her way back home. 

*****

Nabel, who had witnessed the whole thing, thought it would be best to let Alli have some space, so she had watched as her sister wandered away from the palace. But Alli didn’t turn up for supper and she didn’t come home when the Great Sky Snail left the sky and everything became dark. Nabel fell asleep, hoping Alli was all right. 

The feather alarm woke her up, and she clapped twice, causing the snails to light up on the wall. She stretched her neck, only to find Alli in the Gong Ringer’s chair, and staring at the ground with a crushed expression. 

“Alli?” Nabel got up from her bed and walked over to where she was sitting. “What’s wrong? What are you doing?”

“I was thinking about Stone Fifteen,” Alli sighed. 

“’Ignorance is bliss’?” Nabel asked. 

“Yeah, that one’s true,” Alli nodded. “Ignorance is bliss. Or at least it was. I was pretty happy when I didn’t know about the Smallfoot. Or the S.E.S. Or how amazing Cody really is. And I’m pretty sure I’d be happier not knowing that they hate me. Or that I lied and betrayed them all.”

She sighed and continued. 

“I miss being ignorant. So let’s just, you know, go back to the way things were. With one change. I’ll be the gong ringer from now on. Maybe banging my head into that thing will make all these feelings go away.”

“Oh, yeah,” Nabel agreed. “You’ll pretty much go numb. You won’t feel a thing.”

“Good. ‘Cause I feel like such a jerk,” Alli said, wrapping her arms around her legs and burying her face in her knees. 

Nabel glanced at the gong, and then at the palace. She sighed and placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Okay. Now you remember the advice I gave you, right? First, check your wind. Pretty easy to get blown off course.”

Alli lifted her finger lifelessly in the air, feeling no gusts. “Wind, check.”

“And you’ve got to true your aim,” Nabel resumed as she turned the wheel that changed the direction of the launch pad. “You’ll never succeed if your aim isn’t true.”

“Aim. Check.”

“And don’t forget. Even though you know it’s going to hurt, you’ve got to hit head-on,” Nabel finished. 

Alli looked up from her knees to find that she is facing the palace, not the gong, and looked back at her sister. 

“Bel?”

“She’s in there,” Nabel smiled, as she placed her hand on the release lever. “He’s in there.”

“But…” Alli glanced to find the Great Sky Snail rising over the mountain peaks, its golden rays touching everything around it. She gazed back at Nabel. 

“You already woke the village, Alli,” Nabel said. “Now go make sure they stay awake.” 

When Alli had thought that by lying about the Smallfoot, she’d been doing what was best for everyone, she’d made the decision out of fear. There had to be another way-a way that didn’t mean everyone had to push down their questions. A way that didn’t mean the Smallfoot would have to die. 

It wasn’t too late. 

Alli smiled. “I love you, Nabel.”

“I love you, too, sis,” Nabel replied. “Now say the word.”

Alli prepped her feet off the ground, a determined look in her eyes. “Launch!” She cried. 

Nabel pulled the lever, and she fired Alli off the launchpad. 

Alli soared through the village, past the gong. She looked down, forcing her head to face Cody’s window of the palace, preparing herself for the incoming pain. She broke through it, slid across the floor, and the back of her body met the wall, dozens of papers flying everywhere. She fell down to the floor, and got up, rubbing her head gently. 

“Ow!” She groaned. “Cody, I am so sorr..”

Blaze the mammoth stared blankly at her. Cody was not there. 

Alli spotted something on the wall-something that made her blood turn to ice cold and her eyes grow in horror. 

“Oh, no,” she said. 

At that moment, the Stonekeeper rushed in. 

“Cody!” He asked, and he saw Alli. “What are you doing here?”

She didn’t answer him as she kept on gazing at the wall in front of her, and he followed her gaze. 

The wall of Brittany’s drawings of the human world. But one had been drawn by Cody’s hand. It showed a Yeti holding a human, and it had an arrow pointing down below the clouds. 

“Cody!” The Stonekeeper cried in fear. Blaze watched the wall from behind the two.

“Where’s the Smallfoot?” Alli demanded.

*****

Cody carried Brittany, whose breathing was still heavy and off, in the sleeping bag, in his arms, the same way he had seen Alli carry her with her when she brought her up to the mountain. 

“Hold on, girl, okay?” He urged to her. “You’re almost home.”

He stopped and his jaw dropped as he saw the view in front of him. 

“Wow,” he breathed in wonder. 

Cody made his way in Brittany in his arms to the human village below, unaware of the danger ahead of him. 

*****

The Stonekeeper and Alli had found Nate, who was sitting next to the block of ice that had held the Smallfoot. 

“Yeah, uh, so Cody took the Smallfoot,” Nate admitted. 

The Stonekeeper sighed. 

“And, uh, convinced me I had a lot of anger issues because of something called a father complex. I dunno, something about not getting enough hugs as a kid. Really doing some serious processing right now…Dad.”

“What have I done?” The Stonekeeper mumbled. 

Alli glanced at the ice door far ahead and turned back at the leader. “Open the door!” 

She ran out as the large ice door lifted up from the ground, ignoring the confused looks of the villagers as she ran through the village gates. She knew exactly where he was heading to. 

*****

She raced out of the palace to the edge of the ice cliffs, where she found Josh, Sam, and Matt sitting and gazing over the edge. 

“Guys!” Alli placed her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “Guys! You have to help me!” She begged. “Cody’s taken the Smallfoot below the clouds!”

They ignored her as they kept on staring at the clouds below them. 

“Look, I’m sorry,” Alli pleaded with them. “I didn’t mean what I said. I can explain everything-after we find Cody. He’s in danger. You have to believe me!”

“Why should we believe you?” Sam asked her, her face filled with betrayal. “You lied. Friends don’t do that.”

“Or stab you in the back and call you crazy in front of the whole village,” Josh added, turning to face her, too. 

“You acted like me,” Matt told Alli. “I expect more from you.”

Alli’s face fell. What they had said was true. 

“You’re right. I lied,” Alli admitted. She walked over to the edge of the ice cliffs, where Josh, Sam, and Matt are. “You know, you’ve always searched for the truth, no matter what anybody said. They laughed at you, called you names.”

“Wait, what names?” Matt asked. Josh glanced at him. 

“But you never let fear get in the way,” Alli resumed. 

Josh, Sam, and Matt looked at her, as Alli sighed and looked out over the clouds. 

“That’s what I should have done.” 

She walked back away from the cliffs and turned around with a determined look. “And it’s what I’m going to do now.” 

Then she ran toward the edge of the cliff and jumped off, screaming. 

“Alli!” Josh and Sam yelled. 

“Wait!” Matt yelled after her. “What names?”

The goat was eating a plant when it heard screaming and looked up to find Alli falling straight towards it. It screeched and ran away, just in time before Alli hit the ground in the same spot the first time she landed, kicking up an explosion of snow. 

She crawled out of the snowdrift and sighed. “Oh, Cody, where are you?”

She then heard a cry above and glanced up just as Sam appeared from the foggy clouds. 

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!” 

“Aaah!” Sam landed on top of Alli, and got up, a bit woozy, but regained her balance. 

“Sam!” Alli cried, getting up as well. 

“Hi,” Sam replied. 

Alli was happy to see her, but then she realized something. “Wait, if you’re here, then that means…”

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

Both girls looked up to see Josh screaming and falling towards them.

“Aaah!” They hugged one another and shrieked. 

Josh landed on top of them, creating a crater in the snowscape. 

“Man, that is a long way down,” Josh remarked, laying on the snowy ground. Sam and Alli got from underneath him, and they all stood up. 

“Guys! You came!” Alli said. 

“Of course we came,” Sam replied. “For Cody.”

“Oh, yeah,” Alli chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, I know.”

“And a little bit for you,” Sam added. “But mostly Cody.” Josh nodded with her in agreement. 

“Thank you,” Alli said. “Even you, Matt. Wait, where’s Matt?”

“Aaaaahhh!” 

Two more screams echoed from above, but Alli, Sam, and Josh got out of the way in time, before Matt and Nabel landed on the snow, his arms wrapped around her to protect her from the hard impact. 

“Nabel?” Alli questioned in confusion, as her older sister got up from the ground and shook the snow off her. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” Nabel replied. “I can’t let my little sister go out there on her own. And besides, I need to know if everything you had said back there was true.”

“What?”

“The way you were talking about the Smallfoot, how you were nervous. You looked like you were hiding something. Like you were trying not to tell the truth about it.”

“You came all the way down here to ask me about it?” Alli asked, clearly shocked about how Nabel can see through her. 

“Not just that, Alli,” Nabel added. “You didn’t remember the piece of advice Mom and Dad had always given us.”

Alli realized that Nabel was right. She had forgotten about the one thing their parents had raised them to do; in the act of trying to keep everyone safe by lying, she had forgotten about being true, no matter the circumstances. 

“They raised to always be true,” Nabel answered for her. “Even if it goes against the stones.”

Alli smiled, and they trapped each other in a hug. Josh, Sam, and Matt awwed at the moment between the two sisters. 

“We can’t wait,” Alli piped in after breaking up the hug. “We have to find Cody right now before someone else does.”

The five Yetis crawled up and out of the crater, and Sam, Josh, Matt, and Nabel marveled at the world below the clouds. 

“Wow, it’s so big,” Sam gasped, her eyes wide. 

“How do we even know he landed here?” Josh asked Alli. 

His question was answered when she cleared her throat and motioned at Cody-shaped and Brittany-shaped holes in the snow in front of them. 

“Oh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note in the end: Wanted to change something for the TC/Smallfoot AU. In this AU, Matt has a crush on Nabel since they were kids, too, but she seems to think he was annoying; turns out she has a crush on him, moreover.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wonders and chase in the human city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization.

When Cody had reached the bottom of the mountain, he had followed sounds and lights until he reached the human city. 

He saw a human building with steam coming out of the vent on the roof, and he placed Brittany in the sleeping bag, laying her on top of the warm vent. Very quickly, she began to breathe more easily, and the pink colors returned to her cheeks. 

“Okay, girl. You can breathe easy now,” Cody said. “You’re home. See?” 

He made a triangle shape with his hands as he looked at a house with the words, ‘Coffee House’. “Home.” 

He stared at Brittany for a few moments, making sure she was okay. But then, he saw something and his eyes squinted. 

“What is that?” He wondered aloud, and he walked away from Brittany to where he had seen it. 

Brittany squirmed lightly before she gasped and sat up straight. “Wait, where am I?”

She got up and saw that she was back in the human village. She suddenly saw Cody, who was strolling down the street, past the shops, curiously looking into windows. People started to poke their heads out of their doors, astonished by the site of the furry creature strolling through their village. 

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.” 

Brittany moved forward, but she fell off the cup roof and yelped. Shaking off the sleeping bag from her feet, she ran out the door that leads her to the ground below her. 

She rushed out the door when she reached the bottom floor, and she scanned around for any signs of Cody before she heard the sound of an engine running and a light shone on her quickly. She squinted her eyes at the familiar figure riding the snowmobile. 

“Ginger?”

“Brittany?!”

Ginger zoomed up to her on the snowmobile, but she was unable to stop quickly enough, and she plowed into her. Brittany flew up into the air, screaming, and fell back down. Ginger stopped the machine and hopped off to help her up. 

“Brittany, you’re alive!” Ginger picked Brittany up by the arms and shook her in happiness. “You’re alive!”

Brittany’s head fell forward, even though she was fully awake. 

“Oh, my god, you are alive, aren’t you?”

“Not dead,” Brittany groaned. “Raring to go.”

She stumbled slightly, but when she regained her balance, her eyes widened. 

Through the window of an internet cafe, a video played on a screen. Brittany whispering into the camera in a cave, then changing to Alli. 

“My video,” Brittany realized. 

“I uploaded it like you told me to,” Ginger explained. “And it totally went viral!”

For the first time, she looked at her with admiration. “It was real, right? I mean, I have the suit.” Ginger pointed at the suitcase strapped to her snowmobile. 

“You found a Yeti,” Ginger continued, grinning. “My phone has been ringing like crazy. Everyone wants you!” She shook Brittany excitedly by the shoulders. “Haven’t you checked your messages?”

Brittany pulled out her phone, and the screen went on to show voicemails she could barely count. As she clicked play, she stared at the video through the cafe window. 

“Brittany, my favorite client! It’s your agent. I want you back. Call me.”

“This is Mark Birden from the National Geographic Society. Call me!” 

“Brittany, it’s your mom! I’m no longer ashamed of you!”

“Hi, this is the New York Times calling you again…”

“I got your number from a friend of a friend.”

“I saw your video.”

The video in the internet cafe played on a loop. The likes kept coming. Thousands…then hundreds of thousands…then millions. Brittany can see her video on different screens surrounding her as the voicemails continued to play until the last one played on her phone. 

“Brittany, it’s Gayle at the network. I saw your video! If you can get that Yeti alive, you and your show are saved!” 

Her wildest dreams were coming true, and it was all because of the Yetis. She was famous. Adored. Admired. Respected. 

“This is everything you ever wanted,” Ginger said. 

Brittany smiled until she saw a familiar figure in the glass window, and spun to find Cody walking away. Her smile fell. 

“Wait, the Yeti’s here?” Ginger asked her. 

Brittany realized that if someone sees him, he’d get captured. Or worse. 

*****

“I can’t believe what I’m looking at,” Cody said in amazement, running his hands under the ball-shaped lights. “This is incredible!” 

He saw something else and went over to investigate it. A man walked past his window but stepped back when he thought he saw a body of blonde fur. 

“What is that?” Cody asked aloud, unknowing that his mouth was hidden behind a smile sign. 

“So pretty,” he breathed, as he examined a neon sign of a lotus flower. He heard high-pitched giggling from another window and gasped in delight. 

“Oh, my gosh!” He squealed in delight as a child reached out to him, laughing in wonder. “A baby Smallfoot! You’re so cute!” 

He glanced the other way and saw a bending air stick-figure, moving along with it a second later. 

“Wow, you are so limber!” He laughed, before realizing that the bending figure was not alive. 

“Wait, you’re not real, are you?” He asked, deadpanned. 

Cody had reached the center of the town, where a pretty tree grew next to pagoda. 

“Super pointy,” he said as he poked the edges of the roof. He felt the leaves on the tree and knelt down to look inside the pagoda. 

“Oh, it’s so pretty,” he breathed in awe. He then saw a Smallfoot through the open doorway of the pagoda and gasped. 

“Another Smallfoot!” He exclaimed. The female Smallfoot gasped when she saw Cody. 

“How many of you are there?” Cody stood up and looked around. “Oh. A lot.” 

The humans gasped and stared back at him, openmouthed. 

“Hi!” Cody said and waved at them. 

One by one, the humans dropped the items they were carrying, too shocked by what they were seeing. A car blared its horn and sped past Cody. 

“Wow! Those are fast!” Cody said as the cars sped under him, and he twirled around. One of them nearly hit him, but they avoided him. He backed up, unintentionally hitting the parked cars. 

The impact from each one caused the last one to hit a lamppost, which landed on a firework shop. 

Meanwhile, Alli searched for Cody around the Yak Shack, where she first met Brittany, before reuniting with her sister and the others.

“Guys, I’ve looked everywhere. Cody’s not here.”

“Yeah, I think I found him,” Sam replied, as she motioned at the fireworks from afar. 

“Oh, this is amazing!” Cody gasped in wonder, watching the fireworks in the sky. 

Sirens began to sounds and swirling lights began to flash. Police officers got out of their vehicles as they prepared tranquilizer guns, nets, and animal traps to take down Cody.

Cody spun to find the policemen surrounding him before they shined a bright spotlight at him, as he shielded his eyes with his hands. 

“Oh, uh…” He chuckled nervously, shielding his eyes from the light with his hands. “Hey…oh!”

Brittany and Ginger made their way t the front of the crowd, just as the police were ready to shoot Cody. 

“Oh, no, no, no,” Brittany wailed. 

“Okay, that’s really bright,” Cody commented. 

One of the officers shot a net at Cody, but he dodged it in the nick of time, before a hook strapped to a hook suddenly lodged onto his arm. 

“Hey! Ow!” He yelled in pain, pulling it as the rope attached to the police car got pulled along by his force. He had no idea what kind of danger he was in. “What is going on?”

His roars and growls of pain and surprise caused chaos, sending the crowd running in all directions, bumping into the officers. Brittany and Ginger watched in horror as the police reload the nets to take down Cody. 

Luckily, Cody was able to get the rope off of his arm; but the strong force was enough to send the car attached to the rope flying straight towards a house. 

“Why are you doing this?” He asked in fear and confusion. 

Two more police cars were heading towards them, a spotlight from a different direction. Cody suddenly sprung through an alleyway, the cars following after him. A helicopter above shone a light on him as he attempted to find a way to escape. He only made it a few miles before an arm suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a building. 

“Cody! We’re here,” Sam said. “It’s okay.” Matt, Nabel, and Josh stood beside her, relieved that they had managed to save him in time. 

“Thank you,” Cody sighed in comfort. 

“Actually, it’s not okay, we’re in the worst place ever,” Matt said nervously. “But we are together!”

“Yes!” “Yah!” Josh and Sam high-fived each other tensely. 

“Are you hurt, Cody?” Nabel asked worriedly. 

“I’m okay,” Cody nodded. “But why did they just turn on me like this?”

“Because they’re terrible creatures,” Alli stepped out of the shadows, a guilty look on her face. 

“You! Why are you here?” Cody asked her angrily. 

“You’re angry.”

“You think?!” He yelled. 

“Cody, I’m so, so sorry,” Alli said. “But believe me, I said what I said to protect you.”

“Protect me?! By lying?!”

“He’s got a point there, Alli,” Sam piped in, watching through the window to check if they were spotted yet. 

“Haven’t you been lying to your dad, secret leader of the S.E.S.?” Alli sassed back. 

“She’s got a point there, Cody,” Josh added. 

“This is completely different!” Cody shouted. “Besides, what do you think you were you trying to protect me from anyway?”

“From them.” Alli pointed at behind Cody, who turned to find something that made his heart drop. 

Cody stooped to see different pictures of Yetis in different interpretations, of what they look like, and what they had done. Some pictures reveal Yetis being killed and shot at by hunters. He gulped in horror. 

“This is what your dad showed me,” Alli explained, as she knelt beside him. “This is why I lied. They’re monsters.”

Cody glanced at a painting on the wall, showing a Yeti burning down a person, while humans ran away from it. 

“No, they think we’re monsters,” he concluded. 

Lights flashed through the museum windows. 

“Guys, guys! Psst! They’re getting closer!” Sam whispered frantically. 

The police got out of the cars and headed towards the museum entrance. 

“They’re gonna find us!” Sam wailed. “What are we gonna do?”

“We gotta go, now!” Josh said. 

Cody still hated the idea of running from them. “Are they really all bad?” He asked Alli. 

She looked down at her toe, which still had the bandage Brittany had placed there. “I don’t know,” she replied. “But we can’t wait around to find out.”

The police slammed into the door, trying to bust it open. They only slammed into again a few more times, before the doors finally gave way. They gasped when they saw a giant hole on the brick wall and stared at each other wide-eyed. 

Alli, Nabel, Cody, Josh, Sam, and Matt ran through the streets, while the cars were in different directions trying to find them. 

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.” Matt hit the lights on the lampposts while he was running, as the pair ran in a Pacman-like reference. 

They hid in an alleyway as the cars got closer. Josh accidentally hit an object that activates the power of the city, which landed in front of the two police cars and exploded, causing the lights in most of the city to black out. 

The Yetis climbed up onto the roofs of the homes, and they lept from building to building, hiding one time behind a Yeti sign on a roof. A helicopter flew over them as they followed behind them. 

The police weren’t the only ones looking for the Yetis. Brittany and Ginger zipped through the streets on her snowmobile, following the police vehicles and the crowd. Ginger came to a stop and they jumped off. 

“Where did they go?” Brittany asked desperately. 

“I swear they came this way,” Ginger said. 

Their eyes found six large figures leaping over them, rooftop to rooftop. 

“Whoa! Found them!” Brittany cried. 

Four police cars whizzed past: they saw the Yetis, too. 

“Oh, no!” Ginger said, and she saw Brittany heading towards the snowmobile. “Where are you going?”

“They’re not going to get them before I do!” Brittany called as she zipped away. 

“Brittany!” Ginger called to her. 

“Let’s go! Come on!” Alli shouted as she and the others leaped from roof to roof. The police cars followed after them, but the paths were too high for them to catch up to them. 

“Getting down here was easier,” Nabel commented. 

The Yetis swiftly reached the outskirts of the village and ran across a field of snow. The police cars couldn’t follow them. The Yetis forged ahead into a forest of trees. 

The helicopter chased after them, the light shining from the opening. Alli tripped on a rock, but she got back up quickly and followed after the others. 

The Yetis stopped at a wall of the mountain, and their eyes widened in terror. 

“Oh, no!” Cody said. “Alli, we’re trapped!” 

The others hid behind a rock, but Alli was spotted by the helicopter, its light shining on her, cutting her off from safety. 

“Stay out of the light!” Sam warned fearfully. 

Alli wailed as she shielded her eyes from the bright light. She was ambushed! 

But then, a large stone hit the top blades of the helicopter, causing it to flay around. The stone, which revealed to be the red smeared one, fell to the snowy ground. 

“Huh?”

The Yetis turned to see the Stonekeeper sticking his staff onto the snow and throwing one stone at a time at first, but then hurled the rest of his robe at the helicopter.

“The whole robe,” Josh said, dumbfounded. 

The stones bent the propeller blades, and the helicopter dropped down, getting stuck by two trees. The pilot emerged, unhurt and fell to the ground, dizzy. 

“I told you the stones were here to protect us!” The Stonekeeper said proudly. 

“Dad!” Cody said. 

“Cody!” His father called back, relieved. 

Cody ran up the hill to face him. “You came for me.”

“Of course I came. I listened,” the Stonekeeper replied. Cody hugged his father, the latter hugging him back. 

“Thank you.”

More lights approached them.

“What are those things?” Matt asked, pointing at them. 

Down the slope, six snowmobiles sped towards them. There were five SWAT team members, white coats and eye masks covering them. Without warning, the SWAT team fired tranquilizer darts at the Yetis. One missed Alli and hit the red smeared stone instead. 

“Alli, c’mon! We can make it!” Cody called, motioning for her to hurry, as Sam, Josh, Matt, and Nabel climbed up the hill. 

Alli glanced back at her friends, then at the SWAT team. She closed her eyes, then they turned to strong-minded. 

“Go!” She said. 

“What are you doing?” Nabel yelled for her. 

“We can’t let them follow us home!”

“Alli!” 

“Just go!” 

“No!” Cody reached for her in fear, but the Stonekeeper held him back by the arm. 

Alli raced forward towards the SWAT team, her eyes filled with anger and energy. If they want a Yeti, they are going to get one! The SWAT team stopped suddenly as Alli ran towards them. 

“Here I am! Come and get me!” She yelled at them. 

Alli went the other direction, and the SWAT team started to chase after her. 

Meanwhile, one snowmobile appeared and stopped suddenly. Brittany found Alli being pursued by the SWAT team, and gasped, and followed after them. 

Alli ran through the trees, with the team still behind her, but she managed to lose them when she jumped over a fallen tree, which they were unable to get through. 

“Josh, come on! Hurry!” Cody called for Josh, who climbed up the mountainside behind the others.

The SWAT team jumped over a snow bank, still on Alli’s trail. Unbeknownst to them, Alli got from the snow, and sighed relief, shaking the snow off her fur. 

But then, a light appeared from behind. 

She gasped and shielded her eyes, as the snowmobile came to a slow stop. A Smallfoot got out and walked slowly towards her. It was Brittany. 

Alli blinked in astonishment as Brittany walked closer to her, her hand held up in front of her to let her know that she doesn’t mean any harm. 

How could she? She’s back with her kind, her cruel, horrible kind. 

‘But are they really all bad?’ Cody’s voice echoed in Alli’s head. She had seen the bandage on her toe. They couldn’t be all bad. 

“Friends, right?” Alli asked Brittany softly. 

“I hope you understand why I have to do this,” Brittany said after she heard a soft growl from the auburn Yeti. She pulled out her tranquilizer gun and shot Alli on the side of her chest. 

Alli glanced at the dart in shock, shaking her head in betrayal and hurt. “Nooo!” 

The SWAT team heard Alli’s roar of agony and stopped their vehicles. 

The Yetis had also heard her roar and stopped. 

“Oh, no! They got her!” Cody exclaimed in fear. He ran back to where the roar came from. 

“Cody!” The Stonekeeper called after his youngest son. 

“Alli!” Cody ignored his father’s cry, running back to the source, the others following behind him. 

Alli groaned and fell to the snowy ground on her knees, the effects of the dart slowly taking over her. Panting, she took one last look at Brittany, who seemed reluctant about what she had done, before her eyes closed, and darkness welcomed her. 

The SWAT team stopped their vehicles when they no longer could find the Yeti. They scanned the area, but it was too dark for them to see. 

The Yeti got up from the ground, and slowly regained her strength to run. One team member spotted her and shouted in Mandarin. The team went after the Yeti once again, nearly catching up with her as she ran straight to where the other animal control officers, the police and the press. 

“There!” Nabel yelled, pointing at where she and the others can see the figure of Alli. The officers, the SWAT team and the media already had her surrounded, lights shining on her. The Yeti stopped in her tracks, with no hope of escaping now. 

One of the officers shot her, and she fell to the snowy ground. 

“NO!” Cody cried, his father holding him back. 

“Alli!” Nabel cried in devastation. 

Josh shielded Sam from the horrific sight below as she hugged him, burying her face in his shoulders.

The SWAT team-followed by the press-surrounded the fallen Yeti. There was a burst of flashbulbs as one of the SWAT team members went to gently lift the Yeti’s head up. 

The eyes didn’t blink or move at all. The member lifted the head off in his hands to find-

“Oh, darn! You got me!” Brittany said, smiling. 

“Do you think this is some kind of joke?” One of the policemen asked in anger. 

“That depends,” Brittany answered. “Did you think it was funny?”

The press groaned. “Just a publicity stunt for ratings,” one cameraman said. “Loser.”

Ginger stepped in from the crowd and folded her arms, smiling and shaking her head in relief. 

“Wait, that’s not Alli,” Cody said in perplexion. “But where is she?”

“She shot me,” a garbled voice came from behind. 

The Yetis turned to find their friend walking to them in a drunk-like state with the dart still on her chest. “Alli!” 

“You Smallfoot shot me,” she slurred, and she fell to the ground back-flat. “I can’t feel my face.”

The Yetis surrounded her in relief and confusion. 

“Wait, so she is bad?” Sam asked. 

“No, no, not bad,” Alli answered. “I think…she shot me to save me.”

Cody lifted her up from the ground and pulled out the dart from her chest. “Yeah, you’re right,” he realized. “She did.”

“She saved all of us,” the Stonekeeper said in surprise. They all watched the scene from high on the hill of the mountain. 

“Well, there goes my fame,” Brittany shrugged when she saw Ginger. 

“Yeah, but you have something better. Integrity,” Ginger replied, smiling. 

“Huh. Where was that hiding? Thank you, Ginger.”

Ginger smiled and nodded at her. 

“You’re under arrest for disturbing the peace,” the two SWAT team members lifted Brittany, who is still in the Yeti suit, and taking her away to their vehicle. “Destruction of public property, discharging fireworks within the city limits…”

Ginger pulled out her phone and signaled to Brittany that she got this covered. 

“…Internet fraud, loitering, looking weird,” the SWAT team member finished as he shoved the suit’s foot in the vehicle. 

From inside the vehicle, Brittany can see the Yetis on the hill of the mountain. Cody and Alli glanced down at her, both smiling in appreciation; Alli nodded as to say ‘thank you’, her heart filled with gratitude.

Brittany nodded in return and grinned, just as the back doors closed on her. As they pulled away, she looked at the Yetis one last time, knowing that they are safe and that they realized that she had helped them. 

She sat down and opened her phone up to find the photos she had taken of Alli, Cody and the Yetis, her new friends. She grinned and she deleted the footage from her phone. 

“I love that little lady,” Alli said drunkenly. 

“I love you guys, too.” She pointed at Nabel, Josh, Sam and Matt who smiled at her, and the Stonekeeper who looked at her in confusion. 

“And you are so awesome, and smart,” Alli turned to Cody, who grinned. “And I’m meet you.” 

She stopped and repeated the words again to make there is no lisp. “I meech you.” 

Alli smiled again. “I mush you.”

She laid her head against Cody’s chest, and he laughed. 

“I mush you, too, Alli,” he hugged her. 

“Okay, everyone. Let’s go home,” the Stonekeeper said. Nabel went to help Alli up, and hold on to her as she walked alongside her to support her. 

Alli wondered what was going to happen when the Yetis returned home. The stones were gone, but the village was safe. And the future…well, the future, for the first time, was wide open. 

In the old days, every day had been exactly like the one before. Now every day was new, exciting and different. 

And Alli wouldn’t want it any other way.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The start of a new day and a bright, new future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: paragraphs are from the movie novelization. Lyrics do not belong to me. They belong to Smallfoot Soundtrack from genius. 
> 
> https://genius.com/Cyn-moment-of-truth-lyrics

A day passed after Brittany returned to her home. 

Alli invited all the Yetis in the village to the Cave of Secrets, where she gave a speech. The Yetis all stared up at the wall behind her filled with the carvings she had seen, which she pointed to as she told her story. 

“This is our history,” she began. “And these are our ancestors. There was a time when Yetis lived beneath the clouds.”

The villagers gasped. 

“We came up here where the Smallfoot could not survive. You see, I thought the Smallfoot was my enemy. And then she saved me.”

The Yetis were all silent as Alli continued. They were hanging on her every word. 

“And I know I said it wasn’t a Smallfoot, but that wasn’t true. And I’m sorry I lied to all of you.” Alli snuck a quick glance in Cody’s direction. He nodded his head slightly, as if in forgiveness. Nabel and the Stonekeeper nodded, too, standing alongside Cody. 

“The Smallfoot is real,” Alli went on. “And they live below the clouds. Clouds we make.”

Lily made an explosion gesture with her hands, and one of her friends agreed. 

“And this is why our ancestors decided to do that. That’s the truth. It’s complicated, and it can be scary, but it’s better than living a lie. Like way better.” 

Cody stood beside her, and they smiled at one another. Josh pulled Sam and Matt into a hug, the three grinning as well. 

Nate spoke up. “So we didn’t fall out of the butt of the Great Sky Yak?”

“Probably not,” Alli answered, shaking her head. 

“Whose butt did we fall out of?”

“You know what? We’ll circle back.”

“Got it.”

“So, now you know,” Alli returned her gaze back to the villagers staring up at the wall and went on. “We think they’re monsters and they think we are. And that is going to change by us hiding. We have to communicate. So it’s up to us decide what we want to do.”

Alli glanced at the Stonekeeper, who smiled and nodded in agreement. The villagers murmured at one another before they all decided their decision. 

The Stonekeeper and Alli approached a glass-sealed hole. The leader handed Alli his staff and nodded, motioning for her to go ahead. She grinned, smashed the glass with the staff and placed it in the hole, twisting it. 

The pistons stopped pumping. The ice balls stopped falling. The giant fans whirred to a stop. And the clouds of steams disappeared. 

The Yetis looked out in awe for the first time at the Himalayas. Alli glanced at Cody, who grinned at her, and placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder and beamed at Nabel who smiled at her. 

“It’s time, time to do something drastic, something new. Right here and right now. We need to find a way, somehow.”

The Stonekeeper wrapped his arm around Nate, and he grinned at him. 

Alli and Cody glanced at one another before their hands intertwined. 

Brittany, meanwhile, cleaned her sign of the firework shop when she saw a figure on the horizon. The humans followed her gaze to find something coming over the hills; the little who Cody had seen gasped and laughed in delight, pointing at the hill ahead. 

The Yetis, lead by Alli and the others, walked towards the village. 

“It’s about reaching out, closing up the distance. Instead of hate, celebrate all the ways we’re different. I am optimistic, yes, I do believe. We have the power to make this world a better place.”

Brittany climbed down the ladder, and with Ginger, who glanced at her, ran to the front of the crowd. 

By the time the Yetis made to the front of the village, the SWAT team and the police were already setting up barricades to protect the humans. 

Brittany ran from the crowd to stand in front of the Yetis, bravely standing with confidence and a determined look in her eyes. 

“But if it’s ever gonna change, we gotta come together, me and you. In a mo-oh-whoa-oh-moment of truth. If it’s ever gonna change, we gotta come together, me and you. In a mo-oh-whoa-oh-moment of truth.” 

Ginger pushed her way through a few people in the crowd and stood alongside Brittany. She glanced at her and nodded, before returning her gaze to the villagers and the police, who were looking at each other in bewilderment. 

The pilot was the next one to approach from the crowd, followed by a few more people. Then the rest of the crowd slowly approached the Yetis. 

“Na, na-na-na-na-na, Na, na-na-na-na-na, na. Yeti, oh-oh, woah-oh, woah-oh-oh.”

Ginger and Brittany turned to face Alli and the yetis. Cody saw Giger and grinned at her. She waved at him in greeting. 

“I’m not crazy!” The pilot exclaimed happily, pointing at Josh. Josh nodded in agreement. 

Alli held out her hand for Brittany to step on, and the latter sat on her shoulder as the villagers and Yetis befriend one another for the first time

“Na, na-na-na-na-na. Na, na-na-na-na-na, na. Yeti, oh-oh, woah-oh, woah-oh-oh.”


End file.
